Leaving our mark
In business, we talk about and refer to our brand, our image, our character, and our reputation. In many ways, they describe the same thing. They certainly are interrelated.
Our brand is the sum of what people perceive about us through our advertising, our website, our product, our interpersonal dealings and relationships, our personal appearance and grooming, our vehicle, our office, and the other aspects of our business. Our work product is huge when it comes to our reputation. Certainly what the marketplace thinks about what we provide has a large bearing on how people regard us.
Our image, created through our logo, colors used in print and online media, graphic images, websites, social sites, and marketing is the face of our brand. These visual clues and the impressions that people see form their perceptions of what they might expect from engaging us to help them – or in some cases, deciding to select someone else.
Interacting with the marketplace
Our character is the core value system that we have that reflects our work ethic and causes us to relate to people the way we do. The way that we are honest and fair, or aggressive and self-centered, are traits of character.
Then there’s reputation. Sometimes it precedes us, like a shadow when the sun is behind us.
Reputation is what people expect from working with us based on what they see, what they have been told, and what they have experienced. Reputation is either good or bad. If it is good because we have worked on making it that way, it doesn’t take much to erode it.
We don’t determine our reputation by advertising it. It is earned by how people perceive their dealings with us. Our brand factors into our reputation and can help shape it. Our image and character certainly are important, but reputation is what customers connect with. If it’s strong, it will create referrals and repeat business. It definitely will translate into believability and credibility.
We all have a reputation. It follows us wherever we go, just like our shadow. It’s up to us to make it solid – like our shadow on a bright, sunny afternoon.
Strengthening our reputation
As people work with us and decide that what they had heard about us or what they were expecting to get from us turned out to be true, our reputation is strengthened and enhanced. Of course, the converse also is true.
Therefore, in all that we do – online marketing, social media, interpersonal connections, professional outreach, and the actual work that we perform to create the desired solutions people request – we must be true to ourselves, our brand, and the level of service we are known for offering.
We want the aging in place solutions that we offer our clients to be special for them and effective – ones that will provide years of satisfaction. Therefore, we must be ready for each task that comes our way so that we can complete it well and cast a strong, noticeable shadow that coincides and aligns with our work product.