The latest fall from grace, of course, is Tiger Woods. Think of all the years Tiger Woods has spent building his brand. In the industry you knew that if his name was tied to something it had to be of the utmost quality. His perfectionism and drive spoke louder than his words.
Yet in just one night his ratings plumeted to 80% of people having a negative impression of him. Prior to the "crash" and women coming out of the woodwork saying they are mistresses of his, only 2% of the public had a negative impression of him.
Can he ever recover?
The reality, based on history, is NO. He will never reach the height of trust and respect he had just one short month ago in November of 2009.
There are several business lessons for you to learn here:
1. Trust crumbles easily- your words and actions must match or they will catch up to you. And when they do people don't like feeling like they have been duped by you.
2. Quality & Perception relate- people will relate your companies quality to their perception of the quality of the individuals you hire. Make sure their attitudes match the perception you want.
3. Actions not Words Count- People will look for the actions to match the words. If they don't, the words mean nothing. Just last month Woods gave an interview on the value of family. Now that same interview is being used to "mock" his actions.
4. Morals & Values do count- Kanye West went from 17% of the population having a negative impression of him to over 81% of the people having a negative impression of him after he humiliated Taylor Swift at the awards. I wouldn't be surprised if his career never recovers.
So the moral of the story is THINK. Your reputation and brand is directly tied to your actions. Yes, people will interpret the value of your brand through how they interpret the value of EACH and EVERY interaction they have with your employees.
All it take is one poor interaction with one person to lose a life time customer. So my advice to you, is to take care of your employees so they take care of your customers.
Anne Warfield
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