TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BRAND COMMUNICATION MANUAL

I spend a lot of time teaching Customer Service professionals how to communicate - both in writing and in speech.

As part of our preparation for delivering communication workshops, clients often share their Brand Communication Manual with us.And while my next observation is anecdotal, I’ve seen enough examples to confidently call it a qualitative finding:

👉 The bigger the organization, the more muddled the Brand Communication Manual tends to be.

Take one global Client, for example. Before an email writing course, they shared their 17-page Brand Communication Manual with us.After reading it, I wondered: How could any Customer Service professional realistically understand and apply this manual in a meaningful way?

It wasn’t that leadership didn’t know what they wanted - on the contrary, this Client operates worldwide and has some of the most remarkable leaders in their team.

But the manual suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen. It was filled with:

👉Disparate and disconnected observations

👉Various unstructured do’s and don’ts

👉Paragraphs of… well, blah blah blahWhat this manual needed was a strong Editor - someone to refine, streamline, and shape it into something truly usable

In contrast, smaller organizations often don’t have a Brand Communication Manual at all. Their opportunity? Create one!

Even for a team of 20, 50, or 95 Customer Service professionals.Because changing poor communication habits months or even years down the line is much harder than setting clear guidelines from the start.

So yes - thumbs up to having a Brand Communication Manual.

But here’s a real world question:Have you tested it - successfully - with the people who are actually supposed to use it?

Consider applying Human-Centered Design principles. Work with the end users - your Customer Service Professionals - to make it more practical, relevant, and truly helpful.

Because a manual that no one really understands or applies… isn’t much of a manual at all.