Our family has just returned from a relaxing and enjoyable vacation in Jamaica, a country I had never visited before and we were able to experience some really fun and unique moments on the island as well as really just switch off and unwind.
Obviously I still had my 'branding hat' on and it was interesting to observe that the staff at our resort were generally not typical of what I expected based on my previous perceptions of Jamaica and the hotel write up.
We had gone to a number of independent review sites and as usual the resort had a mixture of reviews good and bad. But I beleive what we really experienced was total lack of leadership from those running the resort and just management. Management of time, resources and people, but no-one being empowered to the point of delivering a really positive brand experience for us of the resort.
Except two consistent people – one our chambermaid. She was what I expected, her brand attributes were friendly, fun and flexible to our requests and this was from someone earning US$50 a week! The other was the young mother responsible for running the Kids Club – her brand attributes were energetic, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial – she tripled her weekly salary just from us with the offer of babysitting and other services.
Yes it is the responsibility of the individual to deliver on their personal brand, which is what these two had decided to do, but it is also the responsibility of the leadership to do the same and that was sadly lacking.
Take a moment to add your toonies worth