Who's the face of your company?

Here's a teaser from Bruce Wilson's August Best Practices column. In talking about how your employees represent you to the public, he says:

Remember, the team on the loading dock is the face of your company to the vendor; the courtesy of the receptionist is the sound of your company to the caller; the precise, uniformed crew is the image of your company to the customer. It’s not just the team on the trade show floor.

All the flashy marketing tactics in the world can't replace the feeling a person gets about your company when he or she is treated poorly by one of your employees. 

It's something I think about every time I speak to a rude receptionist and, on the flip side, every time I've been to a Chick-fil-A. You can certainly debate the quality and healthfulness of its food or its president's politics, but you cannot deny the consistent, uncharacteristically polite attitudes of its employees and how they've boosted the Chick-fil-A brand. --Marisa Palmieri