When last did you audit your corporate image?

There is a sense of worth, importance and value which customers feel when they are received with courtesy in a clean and beautiful environment. This feeling of worth is intensified when client facing employees are impeccably dressed and have a friendly disposition. Nigerians are a very fashionable people. We love to look good and to associate with people that look good. We love to shop. Above all, we love to outdo each other when it comes to cars, clothes, shoes and bags. But sometimes, too much really becomes too much. It is common to find very slim women with skinny ankles who wear ill-fitting clothes, dangling earrings and 6-inch heels with ankle straps to work. Human beings are naturally competitive by nature. This competitive spirit weighs on those whose salary cannot maintain the high life but are under peer and social pressure to dress very well when coming to work.  But dressing well, that is, in an appropriate manner does not necessarily have to be expensive. The general misunderstanding of what dressing well means creates an environment filled with either under dressed employees who look very drab and stuffed in their too tight jackets and trousers and those who are over dressed and over accessorized.

This scenario is the reality of most banking institutions whose client service employees are required to drive the business goals of an organization through account openings and relationship building. Most banks today are beginning to get it right, but there are some banks that still have a long way to go in creating a uniform corporate image that works. Organizations, especially those in the airlines and the hospitality industry have realised the benefit of making their staff wear uniforms to work. This eliminates the pressure put on employees to pay for a wardrobe they can ill afford. Those who can afford it, unfortunately, do not know the difference between a corporate outfit and a dinner ensemble. The key differentiator is that there is a distinctive line between social wear and corporate wear. Organizations need to formalize the appearance of their staff according to their organizational culture by creating a standard policy that informs what employees should or should not wear to work.

Walking into some banks in Nigeria feels like walking into a scene out of the forties and fifties. It is indeed most surprising that some organizations care so little about how the employees that represent their brand are dressed and even less about how customers perceive these employees or how this perception informs the decisions of these customers to buy or not to buy. Brand engagement happens across 360 degrees. At every touch point, your customer must have the same experience. That is why the world loves the Virgin brand.  I recently walked into Diamond bank and instantly became upset, flustered and depressed!  The customer service was atrocious; the customer service employees’ appearance looked very drab. Most looked very tired and stressed out. There was no uniformity or crispness to their corporate attire. Some of the female staff wore no makeup. The banking hall was especially rowdy like a market square and this particular branch was in the city centre and not inside Balogun market or the Trade fair complex. The general atmosphere of that particular banking hall was draining. Needless to say I was happy to get away from there. That particular experience made me re-affirm my commitment never to set foot in a banking hall for any transaction if I can help it, when I can comfortably sit behind my laptop and achieve the same purpose in an ideal environment.  The only bright part of that experience was the opportunity to reconnect with an old school mate who went out of her way to speed up the process of acquiring a new ATM card on my behalf which was what brought me to the Bank in the first place.

Thankfully the reverse was the case with First bank! The aura of the entire hall was buzzing with friendly and warm energy! I was captivated by the warm personality of the customer service staff, the beautiful props and environment and the video playing in a corner of the room. My curious nature woke up. I explored the entire head office except the vault of course. What struck me though was the underpinning sense of uniformity that I felt while at their branch office in Victoria Island which compared well with my experience at their head office. This for me was the key differentiator between the two banks. While Diamond bank’s head office reflects the brand promise and sophistication expressed in their advertising, the environment in their other branches are a far cry from the positive image experienced at their head office. 

This brings us to the issue of business drivers. What changes should be made if an organization wants to project a uniform image across all its business lines that will also compliment service and product delivery?

Developing a Corporate Wardrobe Manual Policy (CWMP) is a step in actualizing a total organizational brand revamp. The purpose of developing a CWMP is to create a consistent reflection of an organization’s corporate image. CWMP’s are commissioned to fulfil an organization’s need for all employees especially those in client service positions to project a uniform image of the organization’s brand. The CWMP seeks to formalise the appropriate dress code to be worn to work. It also seeks to set a standard dress code that supports a coordinated approach to achieving an organization’s business goal. 

The first step in achieving this goal is to engage the services of a certified Image Consultant. It is the consultant’s duty to understand the business goals of the organization and to develop a CWM that will help the organization achieve those goals. Introduction of a wardrobe allowance for those in key business development and customer service positions is also important. However, for this process to be actualized, all cadres and categories of employees from top management and team leaders to supervisors and to the Image Consultant whose job it is to develop this brand manual, must be involved as visionaries of the organization.

Developing a Wardrobe Manual Policy that guides what employees wear to work should be the first point of call in an organization’s bid to build a uniform brand across the organization. As customers are the soul of every organization so also are employees the key to activating customer engagement. Looking back at all my banking hall experiences, the most memorable were those I got at GTB and the Bank of America. I was not only served very well, there was also an unbroken sense of continuity between the interior of the hall and staff appearance and behaviour. Everything spoke one language of welcome. The achievement of this unbroken brand engagement continuity, needless to say, should be the motivating factor for creating a Corporate Wardrobe Manual Policy.

Muna Onuzo–Iyanam