5 Tips to Retain Customers When You Rebrand

We are well on our way to owning the word “Rhythm” in our market. Our software is Rhythm, our blog is Rhythm Blog, and our book is also named Rhythm. The logical next step is to rebrand our company to… you guessed it, Rhythm Systems. To read about how we made that decision, read this blog.

We are still in the process of rebranding. And thanks to MOZ, we are having a blast on our journey. Here are 5 things we are doing to help us rebrand and accelerate our company's progress simultaneously.  

• Do it with Red-Yellow-Green - know what success looks like
• Do it to enjoy the journey for our associates 
• Do it like the airlines - no Big Bang  
• Do it with our clients  
• Do it with Rhythm 

Do it with Red-Yellow-Green - know what success looks like

Begin with the end in mind. In order to execute well, you must be able to see, understand and be excited about what success looks like before plunging in and spending time and resources. To get everyone excited and on the same page, we did the following:

• Set goals that are clear. We discussed it in our team meeting and allowed team members to help us figure out what would be a great outcome from our rebranding.
• We used Red-Yellow-Green success criteria to make our rebranding goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound).
• We educated everyone and received input on our rebranding during our company monthly meeting. 
• We got excited, really excited, as we visualized our future and celebrated our past.
• We put it into our company execution plan for Q3. This is key. Don't expect a rebrand to get done automatically. It takes time and needs to be part of your company's quarterly execution plan.
• We built rebranding priorities into our 13-Week Race for Q3.
• We reframed rebranding into an opportunity to launch Rhythm 3.0.
• We put this in Rhythm and provided status weekly. We collaborated on adjustments as our process proceeded and we learned more. We took an agile approach to our rebranding.

Do it to enjoy the journey

I realized that rebranding could be a fun journey. This hit me when my partner, Cindy, said, "I mean how many people get a chance to rebrand a company? Let's learn something and enjoy ourselves. It will be probably the only time we get to rebrand our company. So let's have a good time and build some great memories together." We embraced our rebranding and decided we would make choices that brought us joy.

Learning from MOZ (www.moz.com), we decided to launch Rhythm 3.0 as part of our process and leverage this opportunity to introduce ourselves to a wider audience. We are so excited to bring Rhythm to other companies that we can help to achieve breakthroughs on the way to making their dreams come true. So this September, as we rebrand, we are also launching Rhythm 3.0. Here's what we did as part of enjoying our rebranding journey together as a team:

• We built our Q3 focus around the main thing of launching Rhythm 3.0 and worked our rebranding in as the second thing. This helped us get our day jobs done while we executed on our rebranding. 
• We shared the news first with our existing clients in July.
• We slowed down our process and rolled things out one at a time over Q3. No Big Bang!
• We invested in every member of our team. We took two days with Dane Hewlett, a Covey certified trainer, and trained our whole company on Covey's 7 Habits for Managers. 
• We had a company party and celebrated.
• We celebrated our past successes and the 100 clients we are actively helping today.
• We dreamed about our future together. We shared how each of us will contribute in the next chapter of our company's journey.
• We had new logo wear for everyone.
• And we had great food and an ice-cream sundae bar.

I am so excited about Rhythm 3.0! With this version, Rhythm becomes a system that you can carry in your pocket and collaborate with your team-mates. It will have the following:

• Rhythm iPhone App - an iPhone daily accountability assistant app
• Rhythm University - your coaching companion 24/7
• Rhythm Collaboration - enhanced features to improve collaboration

We wanted our clients to know first, so we had a webcast to introduce Rhythm 3.0 to our clients. Please enjoy the recording of this webcast.

Do it like the airlines - no Big Bang

How can we get our regular day jobs done and rebrand at the same time? One of our team members suggested that we do it like the airlines when they merge. Here in Charlotte, USAirways was providing a great example of rolling out "the New American Airlines" in small digestible bites. Truly they were eating their big elephant one bite at a time! 

So instead of getting stressed with too much to do (gotta enjoy the journey!), we learned from the airlines. We chose a gradual rollout instead of a Big Bang on a specific launch day. This helps us to avoid a stressful fire drill and get our big priorities done as well. For our Covey friends, that would be getting our WIGs (Wildly Important Goals) done as well. With this decision, our team calmed down as we all realized that we were not in a hurry. Better to do it well and with strong intentions and outcomes, than to do it fast with mistakes and rework.

Do it with our clients

We took time to think about our rebranding from our clients' perspectives. We wanted to thank all our clients and make our journey into Rhythm Systems smooth and easy.

• We honored our clients by sharing the news with them first with a letter explaining why we were rebranding and what we hoped to achieve. 
• We shared Rhythm 3.0 with our clients in a sneak peek webcast before announcing Rhythm 3.0 to the general marketplace.
• We received many encouraging replies from customers that we will be sharing in a blog to celebrate with them as well.
• We crossed the 100 active client milestone and will celebrate this with a special gift for our clients.

Do it with Rhythm

Great execution requires a strong consistent rhythm. So of course we applied our own method and patented software. We did it in Rhythm and with rhythm. Here is our patented Energymap^® for Q3.

Here’s how you read this Energymap:

• The priorities listed are the top priorities for the company for this quarter, Q3.
• The colored squares to the left of each priority show the current status for each priority. 
• The row of colored squares to the right of each priority represent priorities that individual team members are executing to achieve this company priority. The color represents the current and up to date status.
• We provide an updated status every week and work together in our weekly meeting.
• With a single glance, you can recognize where the energy of all your team members are being applied, and if they need any help (red or yellow status).

During our Q3 planning session, we developed this Energymap together, and made sure that our plan was execution-ready by applying the four tests that I teach in chapter 7 of my book, Rhythm: How to achieve breakthrough execution and accelerate growth.

• Financial Test - We made sure that our financial targets can be achieved with this plan.
• Focus Test - We made sure we had a main thing that focused this plan for everyone to achieve a main thing together.
• Energy Test - We made sure that there were enough squares to the right of our top 3 company priorities, ensuring that we had people working on the most important things for the quarter.
• Accountability Test - We took the time to slow down, discuss and decide in the Red-Yellow-Green success criteria for all priorities. We also documented three to five milestones for every priority. 

This planning process gave us all confidence that we were ready to execute on rebranding and enjoy the journey at the same time! Then, we got into our Do Rhythm, with weekly accountability and adjustments. We are almost complete with our rebranding project. So far, we are enjoying the journey and having the time of our lives. I look forward to sharing more as we get closer to the end of our rebranding project.