NZ Business + Management

CREATING STORIES TO GROW STRONG BRANDS

HUSBAND AND WIFE NIK PAYNE AND SARAH DELANY ARE DEVOUT BELIEVERS IN THE THEORY THAT STORY COMES BEFORE VISUALS WHEN CRAFTING A SUCCESSFUL BRAND. NOT SURPRISING­LY, THEIR BRAND-FOCUSED DESIGN AGENCY MOUNT DELUXE PRACTISES WHAT THEY PREACH.

-

of decision-making, you need your employees on board.

Asked how employers can encourage staff to have more empathy towards customers, and therefore more meaningful work experience­s, Allen reminds us that the relationsh­ip between employee engagement and the quality of customer relationsh­ips is two way.

“They both impact each other. Engaged employees deliver better customer outcomes, but positive customer outcomes also reinforce employee engagement.

“The simplest way to encourage more empathy towards customers is to bring the voice of the customer to the table whenever you make decisions. Whether those decisions happen at the desk, in a meeting or in the boardroom, businesses need to ask themselves if they are truly listening to what their customers are saying.

“Through listening to customers first, we can then empathise with their situation and point of view, then deliver a service or product with that in mind,” he says.

RAISING CUSTOMER SATISFACTI­ON LEVELS

To develop their customer satisfacti­on levels business owners should focus strongly on critical customer metrics. “Whether its trust, advocacy, satisfacti­on, loyalty or any one of the other customer metrics businesses use, they must form a key part of a business’s KPIS, and the business should focus on improving them,” explains Allen.

“But measuring is only the beginning – businesses need to understand what is within their control and what isn’t, and then develop initiative­s to influence what they can. Too often we see businesses that stop at the measuring phase and claim they listen to the voice of the customer. Truly listening to the voice of the customer isn’t about reporting a KPI to the board, it’s about the changes and improvemen­ts we make off the back of our customers’ feedback.”

RAISING COMPANY EMPATHY TOWARDS CUSTOMERS

Boosting company empathy to your customers requires encouragin­g employees to get on board with your business’s direction, purpose, values and mission. You must convince employees that the leadership is worth committing to and investing in.

“This all starts at the top,” explains Allen. “When leaders hold themselves accountabl­e for employee and customer outcomes, the rest of the business is more likely to follow suit. “Customer centricity is a culture, not a policy – it shows up in the hundreds of interactio­ns employees have every day. Leaders need to invest in and develop this culture day in day out, month in month out,” he says. “Policies can be written overnight, but a customerfo­cused culture is a product of time and effort.”

TOWARDS A MEANINGFUL WORKPLACE

To create meaningful jobs for your employees, first understand what actually creates meaning among your employees – in your particular workplace.

Perceptive has done a lot of work

“THE POLARITY BETWEEN THOSE WHO FIND THEIR JOB MEANINGFUL, AND THOSE WHO DON’T, SURPRISED ME THE MOST. THE RESULTS CLEARLY INDICATE THAT EMPLOYEES WHO ARE ENGAGED IN THE WORKPLACE ARE MORE CUSTOMER CENTRIC.”

decipherin­g what specific elements drive employee engagement, says Allen, but the importance of these drivers vary depending on the industry and nature of the business.

“Typically, the primary drivers of engagement fall into four categories: basic needs, individual recognitio­n, teamwork and career growth. Once you know what drives engagement in your own business, your leadership team should implement initiative­s to start driving improvemen­t on these factors,” he says.

“For some businesses, employee growth will be more important. For others, it will be teamwork. Find out what’s important. Create a plan to improve, then measure, your performanc­e.”

Allen says it’s imperative that you don’t assume you know what’s important to your customers or your employees.

“Measure these factors and determine what really drives the right outcomes – you’ll probably be surprised. It’s more important than ever because the competitiv­e landscape is fiercer than ever, for both customers and talent,” he says.

“Your employees can be your most important competitiv­e edge, you need to engage them.

“Also, it’s better for everyone when customers and employees are happy. Beyond being customers and employees we’re all people, let’s not forget that.”

With their home on the North Shore, and their business based over the harbour bridge in Ponsonby, Nik Payne and Sarah Delany, co-directors of Mount Deluxe, regard Auckland’s iconic ‘coathanger’ as a tangible divide separating business from family.

Not surprising­ly, business and family are incredibly important to this couple, with family a relatively late chapter to their life-story.

After first meeting at design school, Nik and Sarah subsequent­ly combined their talents to create their own brand-focused design agency ten years ago. Today they have a five-year-old daughter and sevenyear old son – although it wasn’t until 2017 that they finally tied the matrimonia­l knot after almost two decades together.

So what finally prompted that decision?

Nik says it was to bond the family unit and a desire to celebrate how far they had come. They had, after all, practicall­y grown up together, he says.

The couple turned Sarah’s 40th birthday party lunch into a surprise wedding.

“There was no formality, no drama, it was just a lovely little

secret,” recalls Sarah.

Apart from Sarah’s maternity leave, when Nik had to engage staff to maintain business momentum, Mount Deluxe has functioned perfectly well with just the two of them and various contractor­s/ suppliers as and when required – with Sarah driving creative and

Nik slotting into the business management and finance role.

Both Nik and Sarah are comfortabl­e performing client-facing business developmen­t, with the bulk of new business coming through referrals and networking. Nik says attending business events and schooling up on business issues, like sustainabi­lity, in turn helps them tell their clients’ stories better.

Mount Deluxe has a number of long-term clients, but like many in their industry work is project to project. “You sometimes wonder where the next job is coming from. But it’s a bit like magic; often when you think it, the work suddenly appears,” says Sarah.

Business growth is all about building relationsh­ips and providing great service, she adds.

The couple agree that they gel well in the business, and the key is keeping everything profession­al. “Neither of us can afford to be precious about what we do individual­ly, says Sarah. “So we work as colleagues.”

“We’re constantly striving to achieve the best possible outcome for the client within the allocated time and budget,” explains Nik.

He says, as the company has matured, they’ve both come to understand its value and the value of the work they do. Working with mentors over the years has particular­ly helped in this regard.

➜ MARRIED, WITH BUSINESS

Sarah and Nik have adjusted well to the twin responsibi­lities of running a business and family, but maintain strict rules and boundaries. This includes mentally separating home from business (the metaphoric­al harbour bridge again), keeping egos in check, staying relatable to clients, maintainin­g flexibilit­y around family duties, and adopting an intuitive roles-based way of working where “things just get done”.

“It’s about knowing your strengths and weaknesses and capitalisi­ng on that,” says Sarah.

Once a month they also take time out for half a day to work on business planning, and they’re both keen to spend “alone time” on personal pursuits.

➜ BRAND DISCOVERY

Mount Deluxe invests a lot of time and effort into its Brand Discovery Workshops, each consisting of dual two-hour sessions, which are largely a valuable informatio­n-gathering and filtering exercise on clients’ goals and aspiration­s. The workshops can reveal a “massive hole” between business plans and design, explains Sarah. “People think they do marketing well, but often they’re just touching the sides.”

The one-to-one workshops build trust and gather ‘ammunition’ to clarify and create compelling brand stories for clients; to help steer them in the right direction.

Mount Deluxe can promptly develop a brand story and help execute an effective marketing approach.

“Businesses don’t have to do every form of marketing either – just pick a strategy that will have an impact. There’s real accuracy that comes from the workshop process,” Nik says.

Formulatin­g a brand story provides authentici­ty, and the language used is vital, says Sarah.

“The words and tone of the voice is such a big part of the personalit­y of a brand. It’s not just about a logo.”

Nik refers to the emotional aspect of brand developmen­t, which he says is driven by a Simon Sinek comment around ‘it’s not about what you do, it’s about why you do it’. Ask that question, and some amazing stories begin to emerge. Nik and Sarah can name some exceptiona­l examples of these, particular­ly from their property developmen­t client portfolio.

“The emotional reason for any consumer to engage with a brand is so important,” says Nik. “And so the first thing we create [for a client] is the story – that’s the start of the bond between the consumer and the brand.”

“People now want to know how a brand will make their life easier,” says Sarah. “They also want to know what else that brand is doing for the greater good.”

Again authentici­ty is key, because, as Nik points out, “bulls**t” in marketing still exists.

➜ MYTH- BUSTING

When it comes to delivering branding and design services,

Nik and Sarah believe smaller independen­t agencies offer better value for money, than larger agencies. “Our clients are a big deal to us, so we’ll jump through hoops to give them the best experience.

“There’s also a consistenc­y of who you’re dealing with,” adds Nik. “With us you’re always dealing with Nik and Sarah. We touch everything.”

Design and branding is not about pretty pictures – it’s about business thinking; the process that leads to the visuals. As for your brand – it’s not about you, it’s about your customers; so while you may not like certain detail or content, think about what appeals to your customers.

“PEOPLE NOW WANT TO KNOW HOW A BRAND WILL MAKE THEIR LIFE EASIER. THEY ALSO WANT TO KNOW WHAT ELSE THAT BRAND IS DOING FOR THE GREATER GOOD.”

Going forward, Nik and Sarah plan to make more noise in the marketplac­e. They’ll continue to push their workshops, to evolve their design capabiliti­es.

Above all, they’ll keep creating great stories – including their own.

In fact, by the time you read this, they’ll have a new name to better reflect their own story. A case of practicing what they preach.

 ??  ?? LEN AL
R
E
V
I
L
O
LEN AL R E V I L O
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from New Zealand