4 Ways to Create a Customer Culture

Every CEO talks about how they want great customer culture and service.  Very few though, make it possible for their people to deliver great customer service.  Why? The way the organization is set up.

How is Your Culture Set Up?

Most organizations are set up with a structure that is full of processes, policies and procedures that are designed for the comfort and convenience of the company and not customers.  Again, why? The CEO doesn’t really care about customer service.  He/she is more interested in short-term profit gains through cutting costs, driving internal productivity or making new sales.

What are the results?  An organizational culture where the team members are usually under tremendous pressure to deliver the ‘program-of-the-week’ in order to shore up profitability, low employee engagement coupled with high churn and low customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What is a better approach then?  How about an organization that is built upon a customer culture that delivers higher employee engagement, higher customer loyalty, higher revenue growth and substantially higher profit.

Creating a Customer Culture

The subject is much deeper than the 300 words here in this blog however, here is my 4 Step Recipe to improve your customer culture

1. Values alignment. Organizations that grow beyond the majority, have a team of people that have aligned values.  Those that don’t have toxic cultures. Are you willing to sacrifice profit to protect the values?
2. Purpose. Why are you in business beyond making money?  Are your customers doing business with you for the same reason?  Is your team aligned with that purpose?
3. The ‘Big Picture’ Does your team know where you are going and what you are specifically better at than your competitors?
4. Role.  Does your team understand explicitly what their roles and responsibilities are?  Do they know how they contribute to the success of the organization?  Do you have processes that support them in the delivery of your service or product to your chosen customers?

If you want great customer service, then you need to build a strong customer culture.

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, partner at Incrementa Consulting Inc., #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.