7 Keys to Creating a Customer Focused Culture
7 Keys to Creating a Customer Focused Culture
In the late 1980’s and early 90’s a lot of managers and business gurus seemed to think that if companies just had a corporate mission statement, all of their customer service and teamwork problems would be magically solved. These mission statements almost always touted the organization’s undying “…commitment to satisfying customers…” Blah, blah, blah. If only it were that simple. A mission statement is a good idea – provided there’s ongoing real-world implementation of the principles and values it conveys.
Without implementation, customers and employees find that mission statements that brag about the importance of customers are …annoying.
Managers need a fresh approach to ensuring that customers are satisfied and that employees are personally committed to making it happen. After working with dozens of corporations over the years that have been faced with this challenge, I developed the concept of CAST Meetings© (Customer Service Team Meetings). Think of it as a way to breath new life into your corporate mission.
At CAST Meetings managers and employees gather for a couple of hours once a month to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction. You may think you already do something similar in your organization. Perhaps you call it a ‘staff meeting’. The problem is that staff meetings end up focusing on workers’ needs and managers’ needs – not on those of customers’. So, erase the notion that CAST Meetings have any connection to your current staff meeting. Everyone attending CAST – front line employees, support staff, and managers of all levels – will focus on the most important person, the customer.
When introducing CAST Meetings to our clients, we include these seven key elements.
1. Spread your Customers’ Words
At CAST Meetings, everyone learns the latest results of your customer surveys, letters and comments. One of the most useful, least expensive ways to collect customer feedback that we teach in our seminars is to ensure that employees directly ask customers a magic question, “What can we do to improve our service?” Asking that question and bringing the responses to CAST not only provides valuable information, it also reminds front line employees of one of their most valuable roles - being the eyes and ears of the company.
2. Get People Thinking
Prior to introducing the first CAST Meeting, we conduct training sessions for our client’s management and staff on ways to enhance customer satisfaction - without working harder. As part of these seminars, we brainstorm ways to boost customer satisfaction at each Point of Perception©. Here we generate a list of ways we might enhance customers’ experience at every point where they form an impression of the company – on the website, when they phone in, as they enter the parking lot, while waiting on site, and so on. Later, we bring those ideas to CAST Meetings.
We’ve found that employees share ideas that are often realistic, innovative and create tremendous value for customers. As Sam Walton said, “Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what’s going on out there.” The bonus is that since front line employees are the ones coming up with the ideas, they are more committed to implementing them.
3. Sift to Find the Nuggets
At the monthly CAST Meetings, we sift through the feedback generated by both the customers and the employees. Just because we’ve collected a list of ideas from these groups, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can or should act on each suggestion. At the CAST we use two primary tools to evaluate the suggestions. One way is using a feedback grid that we discuss in our management training seminars. This grid reveals how your customers rate the various services you provide and how important those services are to them.
Another approach to evaluating the suggestions put forth is simply to ask all CAST participants to come up with as many pros and cons of the idea as possible. The result is everyone – not just managers - does a preliminary assessment of the suggestion. That way, when ideas are rejected – it’s not just managers rejecting the concepts (which is demoralizing for everyone). Instead, everyone understands why certain ideas won’t be acted upon. This goes a long way to eliminating the ‘them vs. us’ attitude between managers and front line staff that’s so prevalent in many organizations.
4. Implement Now… Perfect Later
Pilot. Pilot. Pilot. When you identify an idea that on the surface looks like it has merit, the next step is to launch a preliminary test run, or ‘pilot’. So, let’s say for a 30-day trial basis you are going to give several front line employees in a specific department the authority to make a decision that typically requires management approval. Those same employees volunteer to try the program, monitor the results, and report their findings at the next CAST Meeting. If they indicate that the pilot went well, then at the CAST it can be fine-tuned and expanded to other areas within the organization.
One of the great hidden benefits of conducting a monthly CAST Meeting is that those participants who agree to test a pilot project suddenly have a deadline. Moreover, they’ve committed to present their findings to their peers and supervisors. Giving a public report of what they’ve done serves as a tremendous incentive to actually get something done – without pleading, nagging, or cajoling.
5. Replace Policies with Parables
Perhaps the most critical element of any CAST Meeting is “story-time.” During this part of the agenda, managers call upon selected front line employees, who recently provided exceptional service, to share a specific on-the-job incident, and explain why they did what they did. These stories become your organization’s parables - living examples of your beliefs. Parables have been used to teach history and values since before the creation of the written word. They endure because they are interesting, teach us lessons, and are easily remembered. These stories become your ‘code’ - the way you do business. In other words, these real-life stories not only reflect your organization’s mission, vision and values – they become its living
and breathing embodiment.
When it comes to employee morale, sound decision-making, and customer loyalty, most organizations would do well to replace policies with parables.
6. Coach instead of Fighting Fires
We often hear one of the roles of the manager is to act as a mentor or coach. Yet managers get so busy that the only time they ‘coach’ people is when a subordinate fouls-up. Worse still, only one person at a time learns from the mistake. That’s not our idea of being a mentor. An effective coach is more proactive.
One of my colleagues, fellow professional speaker, Joe Bonura, told me, “Spaced repetition is the mother of memory.” At CAST Meetings one of the roles of the manager is to take one of the customer service ideas that we’ve shared in the training seminar and reinforce its application. That way, simple vital customer service tips are repeated and are more likely to be remembered and applied. So rather than reacting to individual crises, managers help all employees to prevent customer service problems before they occur.
7. Celebrate Service – not Seniority
CAST Meetings give managers a forum to provide recognition that’s not based on seniority - but on exemplary customer service. Perhaps even more important is that the recognition doesn’t just come from management - it comes from the workers’ peers. That means you’re creating a shift in culture right at the grass roots. Add to that a few words of open praise from the senior manager to the team, and everyone feels like they are part of a greater good. Combine it with pizza, snacks or lunch and you’ve created a customer-focused event that employees look forward to.
Bottom Line – It Gets Results
It’s easy for corporate leaders to pay lip service to the importance of customers. Mission statements may play well for advertising purposes and look good on the boardroom wall. But employees see beneath the veil of slogans. They need to know that you as a leader actually mean what you say – and that you’re willing to back statements with action. Simple logic dictates that if that kind of integrity is missing, even the best employee will eventually become de-motivated and start marking time.
With CAST Meetings employees discover that the company indeed practices-what-it-preaches. That’s the kind of trust that translates into improved performance for everyone. One of our clients found that within the six months of using CAST, morale had noticeably improved and employee productivity increased by 34%. Meanwhile, they reported that number of customer complaints plummeted fourfold. That’s a corporate culture where all the stakeholders benefit. After all, ensuring that everyone wins is very likely what your mission statement is all about.
7 Keys to Creating a Customer Focused Culture - To learn more about this author, visit Jeff Mowatt's Website.
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“I’m just doing this until something better comes along – like retirement!” If that sums up the attitude held by some of your employees, then imagine the negative impact on teamwork, productivity, and especially on customer loyalty. Chances are that you, as a business manager or owner, are committed to satisfying customers. But what are you doing about employees who see their jobs merely as ‘fillers’? Business leaders need to create an environment that motivates employees to want to take care of customers. Unfortunately, the conventional methods to create a customer-focused culture through mission statements have often fallen short.
In the late 1980’s and early 90’s a lot of managers and business gurus seemed to think that if companies just had a corporate mission statement, all of their customer service and teamwork problems would be magically solved. These mission statements almost always touted the organization’s undying “…commitment to satisfying customers…” Blah, blah, blah. If only it were that simple. A mission statement is a good idea – provided there’s ongoing real-world implementation of the principles and values it conveys.
Without implementation, customers and employees find that mission statements that brag about the importance of customers are …annoying.
Managers need a fresh approach to ensuring that customers are satisfied and that employees are personally committed to making it happen. After working with dozens of corporations over the years that have been faced with this challenge, I developed the concept of CAST Meetings© (Customer Service Team Meetings). Think of it as a way to breath new life into your corporate mission.
At CAST Meetings managers and employees gather for a couple of hours once a month to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction. You may think you already do something similar in your organization. Perhaps you call it a ‘staff meeting’. The problem is that staff meetings end up focusing on workers’ needs and managers’ needs – not on those of customers’. So, erase the notion that CAST Meetings have any connection to your current staff meeting. Everyone attending CAST – front line employees, support staff, and managers of all levels – will focus on the most important person, the customer.
When introducing CAST Meetings to our clients, we include these seven key elements.
1. Spread your Customers’ Words
At CAST Meetings, everyone learns the latest results of your customer surveys, letters and comments. One of the most useful, least expensive ways to collect customer feedback that we teach in our seminars is to ensure that employees directly ask customers a magic question, “What can we do to improve our service?” Asking that question and bringing the responses to CAST not only provides valuable information, it also reminds front line employees of one of their most valuable roles - being the eyes and ears of the company.
2. Get People Thinking
Prior to introducing the first CAST Meeting, we conduct training sessions for our client’s management and staff on ways to enhance customer satisfaction - without working harder. As part of these seminars, we brainstorm ways to boost customer satisfaction at each Point of Perception©. Here we generate a list of ways we might enhance customers’ experience at every point where they form an impression of the company – on the website, when they phone in, as they enter the parking lot, while waiting on site, and so on. Later, we bring those ideas to CAST Meetings.
We’ve found that employees share ideas that are often realistic, innovative and create tremendous value for customers. As Sam Walton said, “Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what’s going on out there.” The bonus is that since front line employees are the ones coming up with the ideas, they are more committed to implementing them.
3. Sift to Find the Nuggets
At the monthly CAST Meetings, we sift through the feedback generated by both the customers and the employees. Just because we’ve collected a list of ideas from these groups, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can or should act on each suggestion. At the CAST we use two primary tools to evaluate the suggestions. One way is using a feedback grid that we discuss in our management training seminars. This grid reveals how your customers rate the various services you provide and how important those services are to them.
Another approach to evaluating the suggestions put forth is simply to ask all CAST participants to come up with as many pros and cons of the idea as possible. The result is everyone – not just managers - does a preliminary assessment of the suggestion. That way, when ideas are rejected – it’s not just managers rejecting the concepts (which is demoralizing for everyone). Instead, everyone understands why certain ideas won’t be acted upon. This goes a long way to eliminating the ‘them vs. us’ attitude between managers and front line staff that’s so prevalent in many organizations.
4. Implement Now… Perfect Later
Pilot. Pilot. Pilot. When you identify an idea that on the surface looks like it has merit, the next step is to launch a preliminary test run, or ‘pilot’. So, let’s say for a 30-day trial basis you are going to give several front line employees in a specific department the authority to make a decision that typically requires management approval. Those same employees volunteer to try the program, monitor the results, and report their findings at the next CAST Meeting. If they indicate that the pilot went well, then at the CAST it can be fine-tuned and expanded to other areas within the organization.
One of the great hidden benefits of conducting a monthly CAST Meeting is that those participants who agree to test a pilot project suddenly have a deadline. Moreover, they’ve committed to present their findings to their peers and supervisors. Giving a public report of what they’ve done serves as a tremendous incentive to actually get something done – without pleading, nagging, or cajoling.
5. Replace Policies with Parables
Perhaps the most critical element of any CAST Meeting is “story-time.” During this part of the agenda, managers call upon selected front line employees, who recently provided exceptional service, to share a specific on-the-job incident, and explain why they did what they did. These stories become your organization’s parables - living examples of your beliefs. Parables have been used to teach history and values since before the creation of the written word. They endure because they are interesting, teach us lessons, and are easily remembered. These stories become your ‘code’ - the way you do business. In other words, these real-life stories not only reflect your organization’s mission, vision and values – they become its living
and breathing embodiment.
When it comes to employee morale, sound decision-making, and customer loyalty, most organizations would do well to replace policies with parables.
6. Coach instead of Fighting Fires
We often hear one of the roles of the manager is to act as a mentor or coach. Yet managers get so busy that the only time they ‘coach’ people is when a subordinate fouls-up. Worse still, only one person at a time learns from the mistake. That’s not our idea of being a mentor. An effective coach is more proactive.
One of my colleagues, fellow professional speaker, Joe Bonura, told me, “Spaced repetition is the mother of memory.” At CAST Meetings one of the roles of the manager is to take one of the customer service ideas that we’ve shared in the training seminar and reinforce its application. That way, simple vital customer service tips are repeated and are more likely to be remembered and applied. So rather than reacting to individual crises, managers help all employees to prevent customer service problems before they occur.
7. Celebrate Service – not Seniority
CAST Meetings give managers a forum to provide recognition that’s not based on seniority - but on exemplary customer service. Perhaps even more important is that the recognition doesn’t just come from management - it comes from the workers’ peers. That means you’re creating a shift in culture right at the grass roots. Add to that a few words of open praise from the senior manager to the team, and everyone feels like they are part of a greater good. Combine it with pizza, snacks or lunch and you’ve created a customer-focused event that employees look forward to.
Bottom Line – It Gets Results
It’s easy for corporate leaders to pay lip service to the importance of customers. Mission statements may play well for advertising purposes and look good on the boardroom wall. But employees see beneath the veil of slogans. They need to know that you as a leader actually mean what you say – and that you’re willing to back statements with action. Simple logic dictates that if that kind of integrity is missing, even the best employee will eventually become de-motivated and start marking time.
With CAST Meetings employees discover that the company indeed practices-what-it-preaches. That’s the kind of trust that translates into improved performance for everyone. One of our clients found that within the six months of using CAST, morale had noticeably improved and employee productivity increased by 34%. Meanwhile, they reported that number of customer complaints plummeted fourfold. That’s a corporate culture where all the stakeholders benefit. After all, ensuring that everyone wins is very likely what your mission statement is all about.
7 Keys to Creating a Customer Focused Culture - To learn more about this author, visit Jeff Mowatt's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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