In today’s world of endless choices, especially in the mobile industry, customer experience reigns supreme. Having a strong brand is vital to improving sales, increasing customer loyalty, even improving overall business performance.  To survive in a fiercely competitive landscape, companies must consistently create value by strengthening their brand in every area of their business. For U.S. Cellular, the nation’s sixth-largest wireless provider, this included improving the human experience – one of the most important elements of their brand.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Russ Nykaza, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at U.S. Cellular to learn more about their brand strategy. As he shared their story, what impressed me most, was his patience, candor and genuine conviction to create unity within the company while consistently improving the experiences people have with U.S. Cellular inside and out.

Russ is a leader that clearly understands branding is a journey and is not without its challenges. He demonstrates however, that with a well-defined strategy, an emphasis on relationship building, two-way communication and consistency between actions and words, success can be achieved.

Our partners at Brand Integrity, Inc. created this simple video to help illustrate what on brand behavior is and how the Potential Point^™ Employee Engagement solution can improve customer experiences in your organization.*

Are your customers experiencing red when you promise blue?

How many of your employees are red? With the right recognition and education, employees will understand how their behavior and performance links to values and business strategy. Learn more by viewing our brief demo then give us a shout to discuss your unique challenges. And thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share this educational video.

* This is a promotional post written in strategic partnership with, Brand Integrity, Inc., creators of the Potential Point™ solution. The video, content, trademarks and/or patents, pending or otherwise, are under the protection of their respective owners.

For quite some time now the employer/employee relationships have been deteriorating. But there are bright spots that have emerged from this dark recession. Employee engagement is starting to look different and leaders are beginning to understand that it's no longer a warm and fuzzy, it's an absolute necessity to catapult their business and drive results.

The reasons are obvious. Progressive leaders recognize that an engaged workforce leads to an engaged customer and that leads to increased profits and better business results.

The question is where to start and how to identify the drivers of employee engagement.    

A new approach to employee engagement

Rather than devising employee engagement surveys that measure attitudes and opinions about the company, how about developing questions that reveal what sort of people thrive in your organization and what motivates them?

HR we'd like to introduce you to Marketing. Marketing, meet HR.

 Photo Credit and Caption by Ep_jhu, Flickr and Crestock.com

As two of most valuable functions driving ROI for your company, we thought it was about time your paths crossed because we believe the time has come for you to explore the commonalities between your departments. We are certain that once you break down some barriers, you'll begin to see that both HR and marketing, in a collaborative effort, can drive business success. With all you have in common, your ability to work together may just hold the key to the future of your business.

What do you think most people have on their minds as they head into work each day? Do you suppose they're mentally preparing for how they can really blow that big presentation, miss an important deadline, forget to prepare for that big meeting or lose the company's biggest client?

Probably NOT.

But if they are thinking about work, they might be wishing they got a pat on the back from their boss or co-workers for rocking that presentation, getting the project done ahead of schedule, being one of the only people who prepared for the meeting or winning the company its newest client.

Some may be wondering how they can get management to notice the little things they do. After all, not everyone in the company is on the front lines or directly involved with the sales and marketing efforts. If they could just get others to notice, they wouldn't have to be so worried about whether or not their job is safe.

The reality is most people want to go to work each day to do a good job and help the company grow.

Leaders today, especially those who have cut staff to the bone, face a whole different challenge: getting employees re-engaged or risk losing performers at all levels. Many are looking for employees to make the commitment to ensure the job gets done and done right. What leaders fail to realize, especially in difficult times, is employees need more from each other, the company and leadership. It can be as simple as recognition for doing a good job, but must be organized in a way that illustrates what actually doing a good job looks like. And, most importantly, how it aligns with the overall business strategy.

Going Beyond Engagement

Based on recent global research workforce studies, aligning on-brand behaviors with company strategies is fast becoming a business imperative for many organizations. The Corporate Leadership Council conducted a study that shows a 50% decline in the level of discretionary effort put forth by employees; disengaged employees are 24% less likely to quit than they were three years ago. Combine these findings with a Towers Perrin study of nearly 90,000 employees worldwide which reveals nearly 40% of employees are disenchanted or disengaged.

So it's no surprise that marketing departments are beginning to shore up a lot of cash segmenting, analyzing and tracking trends around our behaviors to get better at engaging us, motivating us and ultimately getting us to buy more stuff.

Technology is absolutely advancing the brand managers' ability to understand exactly who we are, what our likes and dislikes are, what we want versus what we need, how we like/want to be communicated with and even where we are at this very moment - all to attract, recruit and retain us as long-term customers.

We're certainly seeing this unfold with social media. A weekly survey distributed earlier this year by the CMOClub, profiled also in BusinessWeek, shows that in 2010, CMO's are starting to put their money where the mouths are. They are beginning to allocate time, resources and precious branding dollars to win our affection.

It's become crystal clear that Marketing has finally caught on.

Sure they'll have their legal issues to deal with but the best will overcome this and many will make a great attempt at getting out of the gate. Some will do well, others will fail. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on 2010 to see what shakes out.

In the meantime, even as a firm believer in the customer first approach, there's one thing that continues to eat away at me:

Each and every day these same companies, spending billions on their external market, overlook the countless touch points with those who are just as critical as their customers: their employees.

You know, the people that wake up every day to "live the brand" spending more time with it than their own families. Then, after the day is done they talk about the experiences of their day: what was good, what sucked about it, whether or not they're on "the list".