Most of us interact with brand ambassadors daily.  More often than not when people meet one another they ask one another a version of “where do you work?” or “what do you do?”  Occupations or employers are often discussed during networking and when interacting with a new business or service provider.  It does not matter if employees are formally trained to be brand ambassadors because in these moments they are brand ambassadors.  How well they represent the organization depends in large part upon the organization and how the employee feels about the organization and their role within it. 

Think for a moment about the ‘life cycle’ of one of your typical days and how many ‘brands’ you interact with—consider everyone from the person who delivers the mail to the barista at the coffee shop.  Have you ever interacted with anyone who went above and beyond what’s normally expected from their role?  When this happens during interactions with others these brand ambassadors positively impact their organizations’ brand. 

The potential to negatively impact the brand exists when employees interact with others and they lack a positive opinion of the organization or they lack understanding or information.  How employees feel about the organization depends upon a wide variety of factors, some of which the organization can influence and some that are out of their control.  The organization can ensure all employees have access to information and understand the organization and how its products or services benefit customers.  Increasingly organizations are beginning to understand this is important for all employees and not just employees positioned to interact with customers.