When I played tennis in high school, my coach taught me that my serve would only be as effective as my follow-through. When I followed through the stroke completely I had a good serve, but when I stopped my swing short I would miss-hit the ball and the shot became unpredictable (and it usually landed out of bounds). What’s more is that my serve seemed to have momentum. If I started a match serving well, I typically continued to serve well. But if I faulted a few times in a row, my serve was off the rest of the match.
This same principle of follow-through applies to your brand and the promises you make to your customers. Customers rarely expect more from an organization than for it to follow-through on its promises, and delivering on these promises is habitual. If you don’t follow-through on each promise with each customer, your brand will suffer and it will be more difficult to follow-through the next time around. And just like too many faults caused me to lose tennis matches, too many negative brand experiences can cause you to lose business.
Photo by toga via Flickr.
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