First, there was Apple

Who comes to mind when you think of an enjoyable Brand experience? Apple perhaps. Maybe Lululemon, WestJet or FedEx. Brands a million miles away from the guys who fix your furnace or air conditioner.

Unless your provider is AtlasCare. This is an HVAC company (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) that stands apart in a category littered with shoddy service. The very different AtlasCare experience begins with your phone call not to voice mail hell, or even to a live receptionist, but to a Director of First Impressions:

[Cheerful voice]: "It's a great day at AtlasCare. This is Chantal speaking. How can I direct your call?"

What follows is an experience bearing the hallmarks of a CEO who has self-appointed as CBO — Chief Brand Officer — and in this case, formally adopted that title on his business card. Just as Steve Jobs' vision of perfect machines is apparent in every aspect of Apple's products, packaging, communications and stores, Roger Grochmal filters all decisions through AtlasCare's recently refined Brand Foundation and its positioning statement — Pursuing perfect health for your home.

For example: HVAC technicians don't tend to be natural conversationalists. But like the best family doctor has an engaging bedside manner, an HVAC technician needs certain "soft" skills if he's going to pursue perfect health for your home — leading to Roger's establishment of a training centre that emphasizes role-playing in all interpersonal aspects of the service call.

What does the Brand Coach coach?

Not too many companies can say that — like AtlasCare — they are already far ahead of last year's sales. As CBO Grochmal tells us: "Without the clarity of what your Brand stands for, it's easy to get distracted, especially in the current economy. My role is to make sure that everyone is living our Brand Foundation, consistently across the board. Instead of slashing our prices like most of our competitors, focusing on pursuing perfect health for your home allows us to get away from price-only discussions and have different and better conversations with homeowners."

The Brand Coach can't say it any better.

www.atlascare.ca