Brand Ambassadors Add Value

Loyal, engaged brand ambassadors can contribute to an organization’s stability, growth, and longevity by serving as an additional channel of communication; strengthening relationships; establishing new relationships; preventing the loss of customers; and by saving time and money. 

Serving as an additional channel of communication

Brand ambassadors tell an organization’s story through their daily interactions with customers, potential customers, and with their family and friends.  Seemingly simple, casual conversations can impact organizations.  If an employee is excited about a new product, program, or activity, they’re likely to share information with others.  This often this involves sharing details using various social media channels spreading information quickly and broadly.   In this context, brand ambassadors serve as an additional channels of communication by supplementing the how the organization typically shares information.

Strengthening relationships

Brand ambassadors are ideally positioned to cultivate and strengthen relationships.  By connecting with customers and staying current with the organization’s products and services and any new features that may benefit customers, brand ambassadors are well positioned to maintain relationships with customers that strengthen over time.  Customers tend to rely upon brand ambassadors when they are reliable and communicate consistently.  Customers want to be connected to organizations in ways in which they not only receive value but in ways in which they feel valued.  Through training and support brand ambassadors can be a connection with the customer on behalf of the organization.  By exceeding customer expectations brand ambassadors can be a source of value for both customers and organizations.

Establishing new relationships

Brand ambassadors tend to have advanced communication and interpersonal skills.  With training and a willingness to go above and beyond the normal scope of their position, brand ambassadors are likely to be outgoing and have fairly robust networks of family, friends, contacts, and acquaintances.  Viewing most interactions with others positively, they seize opportunities to establish new relationships with others.  This benefits customers, potential customers, employees, and organizations in addition to those along the value chain.  Everyone benefits from new interest in the organization’s products or services while multiplying the potential for stability and growth. 

Preventing the loss of customers

Mistakes and miscommunication happens.  At times organizations may want to quickly share information with customers and the public from a variety of channels.  Organizations can communicate quickly with brand ambassadors and encourage them to share information with their customer contacts and networks providing customers with current information and news of interest and value.  The tendency to create information occurs in the absence of the facts.  Organizations can enlist the help of brand ambassadors to prevent the loss of customers by sharing information with employees who are directly connected to customers.

Saving time and money

Organizations save time and money by having brand ambassadors directly connected with customers.  They are positioned to share information quickly and depending upon the circumstances they may be able to communicate with customers in their preferred format.  This assists with the flow of information and increases the potential for receptiveness and continued strengthening of the relationship.  Additionally, using brand ambassadors to collect information from customers that can be shared with the organization supplements existing efforts to collect feedback—feedback has the potential to impact decision making and ultimately product and service lines.

Photo by Thomas Hawk, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.