Before You Change Another Damn Color

The Fun Part Is Not the Whole Brand

When we start businesses, picking out the name, the logo, the color palette, and the fonts is the fun part. But building a sustainable brand is so much deeper than that. We have to commit ourselves to delivering on the promise we make to our customers and guests. And this, my friends, is where so many entrepreneurs get it wrong!

With so much noise in the marketplace, your customers can shop anywhere. Making the guest experience seamless is important. They need a compelling reason to not only shop with you once, but over and over again. The aim should be to deliver consistent, quality service with clear communication around what your customer can expect and how your product or service will be delivered.

In order to do this, you must gain an intimate relationship with your work. You have to immerse yourself in your business enough to uncover the kinks and bottlenecks. You can’t improve the customer experience, if you remain too far removed from it.

Your Customer Is the North Star

An entrepreneur who stays too far removed from the actual customer experience has literally missed the plot. And this is something I see far too often. We get attached to our ideas. We become so rigid in our thought process and vision that we leave no room for change.

Sometimes I want to tell business owners to just get over themselves. You are not building this business for yourself. You are building it for your customer. They are your north star.

Now this doesn’t mean you should change your entire business everytime someone has an opinion. It does mean paying attention to the patterns. Where are customers getting confused? What are they asking about over and over again? Where are they dropping off? What part of the experience is creating unnecessary friction?

If the Customer Is Confused, Something Got Lost in Translation

We encounter this every day at Tater’s. We will spend days researching, planning, building, and marketing an idea, only for customers to completely miss the point. And yes, it can be so frustrating.

Because in my mind, I am thinking, this has literally been spelled out in black and white. How are y’all still not getting it?

But then I have to take a step back and recognize that somewhere along the line, something got lost in translation. If the customer is confused, then our communication was not as clear as we thought it was. If the process feels clunky to them, then adjustments need to be made. It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes to us behind the scenes.

That is where the real work begins.

Before You Change Another Damn Color

It’s 1000% the logos, color palettes, and fonts that entrepreneurs tend to focus on first. Anytime I sit down with an entrepreneur who tells me they feel stuck, inevitably they think the culprit is something with their branding. The logo needs to be refreshed. The colors do not feel right anymore. Maybe the font is the problem.

And sometimes, sure, the brand does need to evolve.

But before we change another damn color or redo another logo, let’s drill down into the systems and processes and see what is actually causing the blockage.

Is the customer confused about how to buy from you? Is the offer unclear? Is communication inconsistent? Is fulfillment taking too long? Are people falling through the cracks? Are you attracting attention but failing to convert that attention into repeat business?

Those are business problems. A prettier logo won’t fix.

What Strong Brand Building Actually Looks Like

A strong brand starts with a clear offer. What are you selling, and how will it benefit the customer? How will you deliver it to them? How will you communicate what the offer is and what they can expect? How will you gather feedback so you can continue to improve? And how will you document what works so that every customer receives a consistent experience, every single time?

That, to me, is brand building.

The colors and fonts help people recognize you. The systems, communication, and experience are what give them a reason to trust you.

You Do Not Get to Choose Someone’s First Impression

We don’t talk about customer acquisition enough. In our current digital landscape, a customer may find you through several different touchpoints before they ever spend a dollar with you.

Maybe a friend recommended you. Then they looked you up on Facebook. Later they checked out your Instagram. Then they Googled your address. Maybe they saved the idea for months before finally deciding to come in.

That entire process may have happened over the course of a year without you ever knowing. Do you know how much you may have invested into acquiring that one customer?

So imagine they finally walk into your business and have a subpar experience. Do you recognize that in one moment you may have wasted a year’s worth of work, attention, word of mouth, content, marketing, and consideration?

You don’t get to choose which day is someone’s first impression. That is why consistency matters most. Every interaction has the opportunity to either validate everything they have heard about you or make them question it.

Throw the Vanity Metrics in the Trash

And while we are here, throw the vanity metrics in the trash.

They feel good, but they don’t always paint an accurate picture of the business’ health. A post can go viral. Your follower count can climb. People can tell you how beautiful everything looks. None of that automatically means you have built a business people want to return to.

Customer retention is big for me. How many of your customers are actually coming back? That tells me far more about the health of a business than how many likes your last post received.

In my world, feedback is king. When I’m reading reviews or survey responses, I’m hunting for the lowest ones. Sure, praise from customer’s feels good. But I’m searching for the ones that challenge us and provide constructive criticism..

Tell me where the process felt confusing. Tell me what took too long. Tell me where we missed the mark.

I am also big on individual touchpoints. At Tater’s, that can mean surveys after pickup, one-on-one interactions with customers, or simply asking someone directly how they felt about their experience. Those conversations give you information that a report or spreadsheet won’t.

Sometimes My Great Ideas Aren’t So Great

I struggled with customer criticism in the beginning. When you put time, money, and energy into an idea, it is hard not to take criticism personally. Especially when you genuinely believed you had gotten it right.

But I have learned to separate my feelings from my business initiatives. Feedback is not always an attack on me. Sometimes it is simply information that will make the business stronger.

And sometimes my great ideas aren’t so great…and that’s ok!

I would rather know, adjust, and improve than protect an idea just because it was mine.

The Visual Brand Is the Icing on the Cake

The visual brand is the icing on the cake. Literally.

Think about walking into a bakery and picking up a beautifully decorated cake. The design may be what catches your attention. It may be what compels you to choose that cake over the others sitting in the case.

But if you get home, take the first bite, and the cake is garbage, who cares how pretty it was?

That is how I think about branding.

The visual identity complements the business and compels the buyer toward it. It can create interest, communicate value, and set an expectation before the customer ever experiences what you actually sell. But the cake itself has to finish the job.

Fix the Friction

So if you feel like you have been spending too much time on the icing and not enough time on the cake batter, do this right now.

Go to your website and complete a test order. Submit a test inquiry. Book your own service. Whatever fits your business, go through the process exactly the way a customer would.

Pay attention to where you get confused. Pay attention to where you hesitate, where something takes too long, or where the next step isn’t obvious.

If you’re having issues, your customer is too. And guess what? They are not as invested in you as you think they are. They will close the page, abandon the cart, or stop filling out your form in a heartbeat. They will go to the business that makes the process easy and frictionless.

So before you change another logo, another font, or another damn color, fix the friction.

The icing might get their attention. But that cake is nasty…well you’ve got another problem on your hands.