Rebranding
It was late in 2005 when Crum and his team began researching how to rebrand the organization and become more recognizable around the country. A marketing company they were working with suggested they brand under the name FrankCrum.
At first, Crum was a little put off by the name because it sounded like he was running for governor or that it was an ego-driven thing.
“But then it came to mind really what Senior and I had talked about,” he says. “Because we owned the company, we had to stand behind the company. I took it a step further and said, ‘If we put our name on the company, then we couldn’t run from it.’ It would be hard to change names, and it would be hard to run from bad service. We have to stand behind our company regardless. It would lift our customer service and our company identity to anew level.”
On the surface, a name change would show a unified company,but internally, employees would have to buy in to the changes and band together as one company or else one of the main gains from the rebranding would be lost. The name would change but not the attitudes.
In order to get buy-in for the changes, Crum involved others in the rebranding process and asked what they would like to see happen.
“We manage by committee, and it was a committee that chose,”he says. “I’ve always believed if I let them be the biggest part of the decision that you already have the buy-in. Frank Crum didn’t make the choice and have to sell you, they made the choice and all I have to do is put my stamp on it. It may be a cop-out management style, but it’s the management style that works for me.
“I’ve always believed in hiring good people and delegating.They know what the goals are, they help set them, and all I do is monitor. ‘Are we heading toward the target?’”
The company has more than 250 employees, making it difficult for Crum to meet with every new employee and spend time talking to existing ones about the changes in the company. In order to build a bridge between him and the employees, as well as to improve the culture, Crum increased extracurricular activities.He’s now doing things like recognizing birthdays and anniversaries individually instead of lumping all the birthdays in one month and sending out a group recognition.
“We try to do things that make it feel like family,” he says. “We have a facilities manager, and she plans stuff all the time. We have book fairs, blood drives and ice cream socials all the time.There are always refreshments, and I try to be there.”
Crum also discusses suggestions made by his employees with them in their office or cube to improve communication.
“Right now, I am on a campaign that if you send a suggestion, I am going to come talk to you personally about it,” he says. “I try to let them know FrankCrum is nothing without them. There is no way Frank Crum Jr. can take care of 3,000 clients. They are the front line. If we are going to be successful, they are the ones that have got to do it. I’m trying to push that message out there that the smallest detail is important to me. I am encouraging them to e-mail me directly so I can respond.”
As he was focusing on getting employees to come together as one cohesive family working toward common goals, he also had to make sure clients were kept in the loop about the rebranding effort.
The company educated its clients early on in the process and put emphasis on the positives before the clients could start questioning the changes. The company’s marketing team sent out cards and letters, along with big gift boxes with the name “FrankCrum” on them to customers notifying them of the change. Inside the boxes were personalized mugs and mouse pads.
“I believe we did a very good job of communicating it ahead of time,” he says. “I can honestly sit here and tell you that I haven’t always done the best job of communicating things, but I believe in this case, we did an excellent job.”
Overall, Crum says the rebranding put them in a great position to move forward.
“We defined who we were, defined where we wanted to go and defined our objectives, and we found out where we were lacking as far as tools,” he says.
