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For more than a decade, Craig Thatcher has made a significant behind-the-scenes contribution towards helping to launch and then to build Rapport into a market-leading, award-winning, global guest services brand.
With locations throughout the UK & Ireland as well as the USA and ASIA. He has achieved this by working with the senior management team, which is now headed by Managing Director, Dirk Talsma.
The company is positioned on the belief that “every guest experience should be unique”, and goes to extraordinary lengths to engage, excite and empower its people to personify the brand’s values and do whatever it takes to delight their clients and guests. The secret is making their people or Ambassadors as they’re called - ‘feel special’ and in turn they make their clients and guests feel the same way.
THE NAME RApport
Craig led the original creative team in 2012 that developed the name ‘Rapport’ and worked closely with Greg Mace, who was Managing Director at the time, on defining the ideal market positioning, the branding and communications. He also drafted the brand values, which remain just as relevant and unchanged to this day.
PLANNING PHOTO SHOOTS
Craig organised the original photoshoot to create the imagery for the launch website, with a parallax scroll emulating the seamless guest story and commissioned a unique sound track to go with the film that launched the brand. All before going on to support the launch Rapport in the USA in 2014.
DESIGN AND BUILD OF THE WEBSITE
Craig wrote the copy for and organised the design and build of the second and third generation Rapport websites. The latest one features a small number of Ambassadors and their stories of outstanding service. It drives home the market position, as well as presenting the company to prospective clients and employees.
TWO INTERLOCKING BROCHURES
Craig also drafted the copy and organised the design and production of two interlocking brochures. One describes what the company does and the other describes how it does it. Both fitting perfectly together inside a new folder.
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
As there is always something new going on, the news section of the website is the place to learn more. Over the years Craig has ghost written many articles and once approved, uploaded them with photos, then created social media campaigns comprising of articles for LinkedIn and tweets to drive traffic.
TWO VOLUMES OF INSPIRATIONAL STORIES
Craig organised the design, illustration and publishing of two volumes of ‘Our Collection of Inspirational Stories', that celebrated the outstanding service provided by Rapport Ambassadors.
SUPPORTING THE ANNUAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Craig has supported the awards right from the start, and they are an excellent annual event created to recognise and celebrate the outstanding levels of personalised service provided by the talented individuals employed by the company. The lapel pins given to the winners are based on the Rapport speech marque, inspired by the design of cuff links, that he commissioned a jeweller to make to celebrate the launch in 2011.
STORYTELLING WITH SHORT FILMS
Using film is a powerful way to tell stories or to record key events and Craig has produced several with an award-winning film director. Including one to help with recruitment, one to explain the TUPE process to new employees and another on the role of floor managers in running flexible office spaces for major clients.
RAPPORT ACADEMY FOR BRILLIANT CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
The Rapport Academy provides brilliant career development opportunities with a large number and variety of tailored training courses open to all. At the annual graduation event their achievements are celebrated with many receive promotions for their hard work and extra effort.
WHY MY-RAPPORT?
Over the years Craig has proposed many ideas, and one of the most important was MyRapport, which is an internal social media platform for Rapport Ambassadors. Because they all operate on client sites, he knew a form of ‘cultural glue’ was needed to keep them all together ‘virtually’. As it would be so easy to lose touch, not be aware of new ideas and not know what was going on without it.
Launching CORPORATE RECEPTIONIST OF THE YEAR
As a way of shining a spotlight on the very best front of house receptionists in the corporate world, Greg Mace developed the idea and founded a new competition called Corporate Receptionist of the Year. The only award for front of house receptionists working in the corporate sector. Craig supported the launch in 2019 and remains involved. Read more.
SUCCESSFUL relationships TAKE YEARS TO BUILD
Craig has a long-term relationship with Rapport who use his brand management tool, ‘Continuous Branding’ - to help lead their market, to inspire their people, to win awards and to grow in the UK and internationally. The early years of the Rapport journey appear in Craig’s book; ‘Continuous Branding’.
RESULTS
Up until the pandemic, Rapport grew by 20+% per annum and is the market-leader in the corporate front of house services industry and is in Europe, Asia and North America. Over the years, the company has won countless business awards and was Highly Commended for Best Strategic Development of a new Brand in 2012.
NEED HELP?
Craig has acted as an external Creative Director based on his knowledge of Rapport, its values and market position. If you would like help to build your new service-based company or need to refresh what you are doing, then get in contact now.
KEY SERVICES PROVIDED
Creative direction
Naming, positioning and branding
Commissioning a unique sound track to the launch film
Brand values drafted
Organising photo shoots at Canary Wharf and City of London
Design of internal launch presentation
Design and copy for three generations of websites
Copywriting, design and publishing two corporate brochures
Produced recruitment films and floor managers film
Design, illustration and publishing of two volumes of Inspirational Stories
Supported launch of Rapport in USA
Design and copy for Rapport Concierge website
Ghost writing news articles for website
Social media campaigns