Brands are not just for customers – part 2

By Nicky Rudd
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Ramsac-Power-Logoby Dan May, Commercial Director at IT service provider, ramsac limited

The second part of this blog series on internal branding, if you missed part one, please click here.

The concept behind the Power of One campaign was about saying to our team, that it wasn’t about massive gestures. The thing that made ramsac good, was the fact that we just instinctively do those little extra things, that really make a difference to our clients. We led with the thought that ‘It just takes one different, one exceptional or one memorable action to leave a positive mark on someone.’

With that in mind we set about launching an internal branding campaign. We set our seven key principles out on a series of large Power of One posters. We planned a breakfast launch meeting with our staff, and when they arrived in the office for the meeting, they each found a Power of One gift bag on their desks containing a doughnut, and a message from our MD.

‘Take this doughnut – it’s just a little thing, but I bet it made you smile. And that’s what we want for our customers. That moment when they think to themselves, ‘Hey, ramsac actually does care.’ Why do we want this? Well not only is the power of one small action important for the business, it’s also good for you.’

We had stayed late the previous night to put the new posters up around the building, and we rolled out a new ‘Power of One’ wallpaper across all the IT estate, so that there was a really obvious impact when people walked through the door that morning.

And in the launch meeting, we spent time talking about each of the seven key stages in delivering the ramsac service.

We knew however that ‘The Power of One’ couldn’t be just about a one off gimmick, it needed to become culture. So for that, we did four more things.

Firstly, we wrote our Personal Development Programme around the 7 key elements of the Power of One. This means that every three months when our colleagues have a PDR (Performance Development Review) meeting with their line managers, they are discussing their own performance in line with the Power of One principals.

Secondly, we wanted to stop giving fluffy feedback to our recruitment agencies about needing a ‘ramsac person.’ So we wrote a guide for prospective employees, a one page Power of One summary to really set out our culture.

Thirdly, we asked each team to brainstorm how their part of the business could embrace the seven areas, what things could they each commit to doing differently, whether they were in front line tech support, or back office finance admin, in order to ensure that our customers felt great about their daily interactions with us.

And finally, we launched a monthly Power of One reward scheme, inviting customers to give feedback on staff performance at every interaction, and then rewarding positive feedback with Amazon gift vouchers.

The result? We’ve grown from 20 to nearly 50 staff in the last couple of years, and I truly believe that the culture of first class service is as strong now, as when it was 10 of us sat around the same room.

Branding has always been important to ramsac. We’ve always tried to punch above our weight as far as clients and potential clients are concerned. But as we grow we also recognise the fact that we are only as good as the people we have working for us, and representing us to our clients on a daily basis. So investing in the internal brand has been absolutely vital to ensuring our on-going success.

About ramsac

Founded in 1991, ramsac offers a ‘menu’ of outsourced stress-free IT services that allows clients to match their individual needs. For some clients it may simply be support at the end of the phone, for others a part-time network manager, for many businesses its help in developing a longer term overall IT strategy. Whatever the requirement clients are guaranteed impartial, jargon-free advice.

ramsac is committed to providing excellence in customer service and is proud to maintain a 97% client retention rate. The company won the 2011 Toast of Surrey Award for the ‘Companies with a turnover of up to £5m’ category and sponsored and judged the same award in 2013. ramsac is also an ISO 9001 Quality Approved firm, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a Citrix Silver Partner and an accredited Investor in People.

Learn more about ramsac at www.ramsac.com Understand technology for non-techies with ramsac Tech Talks: www.youtube.com/ramsacltd Follow ramsac on Twitter: @ramsac_ltdVisit ramsac’s LinkedIn page:  www.linkedin.com/company/ramsac Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/ramsac.ltd

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