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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
HACK YOUR WORKPLACE CULTURE FOR GREATER PROFITS AND PRODUCTIVITY "I LOVE THIS BOOK!" --CHESTER ELTON, New York Times bestselling author of All In and What Motivates Me "When companies focus on culture, the positive effects ripple outward, benefiting not just employees but customers and profits. Read this smart, engaging book if you want a practical guide to getting those results for your organization." --MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, executive coach and New York Times bestselling author "Most books on customer service and experience ask leaders to focus on the customer first. Shane turns this notion on its head and makes a compelling case why leaders need to make 'satisfied employees' the priority." --LISA BODELL, CEO of Futurethink and author of Why Simple Wins "This is a must read for anyone in a customer service-centric industry. Shane explains the path to creating both satisfied customers and satisfied employees." --CHIP CONLEY, New York Times bestselling author and hospitality entrepreneur The question is not, "does your company have a culture?" The question is, "does your company have a culture that fosters outstanding customer experiences, limits employee turnover, and ensures high performance?" Every executive and manager has a responsibility to positively influence their workplace culture. Culture Hacker gives you the tools and insights to do it with simplicity and style. Culture Hacker explains: * Twelve high-impact hacks to improve employee experience and performance * How to delight and retain a multi-generational workforce * The factors determining whether or not your employees deliver outstanding customer service
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction: The Journey from Customer Experience to Employee Experience
Notes
Chapter 1: Culture: More Than Just an HR Thing
How Culture Determines the Customer's Experience
How Culture Determines Employee Performance
How Culture Determines Employee Retention
Notes
Chapter 2: Values: Not Some Philosophical BS
Philosophical Bullshit
Values Describe How Work Gets Done
Values Guide Decision Making
Notes
Chapter 3: Selection: The Right Fit over a Warm Body
Begin with Job Fit but Shift Quickly to Cultural Fit
Use Behavioral Interview Questions
Use Group Interviews
Add an Activity-Based Component to the Interview
Complete Those Reference Checks
Notes
Chapter 4: Orientation and Onboarding: Your Sink-or-Swim Strategy Is a Terrible Waste of Talent
A Memorable Orientation Experience
An Effective Onboarding Process
Notes
Chapter 5: Performance Management: How We Fail to Maximize Our Employees' Abilities and Talents
Defining Performance
Performance Enablement
Performance Empowerment
Notes
Chapter 6: Coaching: Giving Feedback, the Most Misunderstood and Poorly Executed Leadership Task
Effective Informal Feedback
The Culture Hacker Informal Feedback Model
Effective Formal Feedback
Notes
Chapter 7: Strategy, Scores, and Plans: The Real Reason Your People Are Not Engaged
Educate Everyone on Company Objectives
Get and Share Feedback and Results
Get the Team Involved
Notes
Chapter 8: Recognition: It's Time to Stop the Meaningless and Mundane Awards Process
The Case for Better Recognition
A Meaningful and Lasting Recognition Program
Notes
Chapter 9: Tough Conversations and Decisions: Why We Have People Who Would Be Better Off as Customers than Employees
Identify Who Needs a Tough Conversation and Who Needs to Go
Having the Tough Conversations
Making the Tough Decisions
Notes
Chapter 10: Career Development: It's at the Heart of Long-Term Employee Commitment, Yet No One Is Doing Anything about It
The Benefits of Investing in the Careers of Your Current Team
Career Development Must Be Organizationally Supported
Career Development Must Be Manager Enabled
Career Development Must Be Individually Driven
Notes
Chapter 11: Communication: Why One Size or One Way Doesn't Fit All
Communication Is All about Understanding
Communicating Effectively When Speaking
Communicating Effectively When Writing
Communicating Effectively When Doing
Communicating Effectively While Listening
Communicating Effectively in Meetings
Communicating Effectively via Social Media
Notes
Chapter 12: Product, Place, Process, and Perks: The Other Four P's That Define the Employee Experience
Product
Place
Process
Perks
Notes
Chapter 13: Leadership: Why We Have So Many Managers but So Few Leaders
Passion
Effort
Expertise and Experience
Caring
Notes
Afterword: Change—It's Not Just Something Everyone Else Does
Recognize the Need to Make a Change
Challenge the Status Quo with New Ideas
Prioritize Your Activities
Get Things Done
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Table 2.1
Table 3.1
Table 4.1
List of Illustrations
Figure 3.1
Figure 4.1
Figure 7.1
Figure 7.2
Figure 11.1
Figure 11.2
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Chapter 1
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“Know your culture and unleash its power. That's the lesson that Shane Green conveys in his powerful new book Culture Hacker. Not only practical, but a good read, too.”
—John Baldoni, internationally acclaimed leadership educator, executive coach, and author of more than a dozen books on leadership, including MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership.
“Shane Green understands at a deep level what moves employees and cultures to greatness. Culture Hacker will help leaders navigate the complexities of performance, engagement and brand in a values-based framework.”
—Linda Fisher Thornton, CEO of Leading in Context and author of 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership
“Tackling a topic like this can be daunting. The author provides fresh ideas to concepts we've all encountered in the workplace. He inspires the reader to apply his methods to improve employee engagement and retention and expand upon the development of exceptional customer relations.”
—Ed Wallace, bestselling author of The Relationship Engine
“Culture trumps strategy. So yes, it matters a lot. And what is culture but a collection of habits? This exciting book draws on hard-won experience to offer smart, subtle and exact ways to make your organization a better place to work, and a place that works better.”
—Michael Bungay Stanier, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Coaching Habit
“Shane Green's book, Culture Hacker, speaks to and highlights the key component that is most critical to any organization; its culture. In a global economy, with ever changing factors constantly impacting the success and potential of any business, he provides insight and direction for the most crucial influencers to a firm's culture—it's staff. No organization, be it a bootstrapping start-up or an established successful firm can afford to ignore the valuable points he makes.”
—Anthony Melchiorri, president of Argeo Hospitality and executive producer of Travel Channel's Hotel Impossible and Five Star Secrets
“Culture Hacker is a refreshing look at next gen HR and how to achieve a transformed work experience in your business with Shane's visionary take on change for an agile and engaged workforce”
—Anne Fulton, founder of Fuel50 and author of The Career Engagement Game
“Shane sets out the most critical principle of organizational success—that engaged employees equal engaged customers. This book is critical in reminding leaders of this imperative as, despite all the evidence that employee engagement delivers not only great customer service but wider success, few organizations are making it happen day to day. Shane sets out some simple principles and actions that any leader or organization can benefit from—not just the retail or service world where the ‘happy employees equal happy customers’ has long been a mantra. They apply to any organization doing anything anywhere – delivering engagement through inspirational leadership must be the key objective for the successful 21st century leader.
—Chris Roebuck, professor and author of Lead to Succeed
“Shane provides proof of what I've said for years: ‘If you get the culture right, everything else in your business will be easier.’ Even better, he gives us specific actions to take along with unique and effective methods to implement. Read Culture Hacker for increased sales and profits.”
—Jack Daly, Amazon bestselling author of The Sales Playbook
“Company culture, whether for a startup or a Fortune 500, is the most defensible and differentiating asset you can create. It defines your potential to innovate, grow, compete, and succeed. Shane offers a clear and concise roadmap for business leaders to design and deliver an employee experience that educates and engages people to strive to deliver exceptional service. It's an important read.”
—John Gengarella, CEO, Netpulse
“Shane Green has always been the go-to source for making company culture a strategic tool for success. With Culture Hacker, he opens up his playbook. A must read for anyone building a new or managing an existing company.”
—Rehan Choudrey, founder and CEO of A Beautiful Perspective
Reprogramming Your Employee Experience to Improve Customer Service, Retention, and Performance
Culture Hacker
Shane Green
Cover design: WileyCover images: survey © baona/Getty Images, jumping man © bubaone/Getty Images
Copyright © 2017 by Wiley. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Green, Shane, author.Title: Culture hacker : reprogramming the employee experience / Shane Green.Description: Hoboken : Wiley, [2017] | Includes index. |Identifiers: LCCN 2017002366 (print) | LCCN 2017023039 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119405757 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119405771 (epub) | ISBN 9781119405726 (cloth)Subjects: LCSH: Employee motivation. | Communication in management. | Leadership.Classification: LCC HF5549.5.M63 (ebook) | LCC HF5549.5.M63 G744 2017 (print) | DDC 658.3/14–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002366
I am dedicating this book to Sandra, Jagar, and Cass.
IntroductionThe Journey from Customer Experience to Employee Experience
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.1
– Ursula K. Le Guin, American novelist
While I have always thought I would write a book, my main focus these past few years has been to build a successful company that is a great partner and resource for service-oriented companies to deliver a great customer experience as well as reducing turnover and improving productivity. I also wanted to share my insights and some best practices around what we should be doing to improve corporate culture and your employees' experience. Before I get into this, let me give you a brief overview of the journey to date and why I want you to read this book.
A lot of my professional career has been involved with hotels and hospitality—operating them, managing them, or consulting for them. The biggest influence on how I operate my business today comes from my time with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The day I became a manager at the Ritz-Carlton in 1996, my boss told me that my first priority was no longer the guest but the employee. This was a hard lesson for me, and it took a while for me to understand, because up until that point, I had been entirely focused on creating the best possible guest experience. At that moment I had to shift from delivering great guest experiences to doing the same for my employees.
Making the employee experience a priority seems simple enough, yet for me initially, and I believe for many managers still today, this seems counterintuitive. After all, haven't we been told so many times that the customer is the most important person to our business? Well, let me begin with this reality for all business owners, executives, and managers–your employees are your most important asset and focus. I know we are told that we are in the customer experience economy but I believe we have already transitioned into the employee experience economy. Are you still waging a talent war? Let me tell you: the talent war is over and the talent won. If you do not start taking better care of your talent, then as company owners, executives, or managers, you will lose your best people and a lot of money.
Now this is not something new. Some of the most successful customer service organizations just happen to be the ones that take care of their staff the best. Starbucks' former CEO Howard Shultz put it perfectly when he said, “Our first priority was to take care of our people, because they were the ones responsible for communicating our passion to our customers. If we did that well, we'd accomplish our second priority, taking care of our customers.”2
For me happy employees equals happy customers so when I experience poor customer service and become frustrated, disappointed, or angry, it would be easy to blame the employee trying to take care of me. However, I would argue that he or she is only a small part of my poor customer experience story. Because while it is the employee's bad attitude or lack of effort that is frustrating me, the real problems are the managers and organizations behind employees that accept and many times incite that attitude or lazy behavior. I become frustrated with the employee but angry at the organization and managers who have allowed this problem to happen.
A couple of years ago I did a TV show on the Travel Channel called Resort Rescue. What stands out to me the most were the interactions I had with members of my production company, who always wanted me to get upset and freak out on all the employees I came across delivering poor customer service—as some of my reality show peers at the time were doing. However, I refused, because, as I explained over and over again, it wasn't the employee's fault. The owners or managers were the real villains in this poor customer service story; therefore, any frustrations should be directed toward them.
You see, it is the employees' experience at work and how their managers treat them that creates the attitude they display and is responsible for the effort they exert.
Poor customer service is often the result of a poor attitude or a lack of effort from an employee, which is often the result of a poor employee experience. Over the years as I have worked with and consulted for many organizations seeking to improve their customer experience abilities, and invariably at some point we would talk about those elements of the employee experience that were failing to instill the type of mindset and attitude that their customers expected or deserved to receive. The company I founded, SGEi, has evolved from designing and delivering customer service skill training to leadership development to what is now the methodology and thinking behind the Culture Hacker concept.
As I considered, researched, and discussed what it meant to take care of employees in the workplace, it became more and more clear that if I truly wanted to impact customer service and experience, this was the way I could do it. One article early on that sparked my thinking came from Time magazine's Health and Wellness issue back in 2005—before everyone was really getting on the work culture bandwagon. The article noted:
Researchers in psychology, economics, and organizational behavior have been gradually discovering that the experience of being happy at work is similar across all professions. People who love their jobs feel challenged by their work but in control of it, have bosses who make them feel appreciated, and co-workers that they like. They can find meaning in what they do.3
To inspire better service, we needed to focus on creating happier and more engaged employees. As Timothy R. Clark, CEO of LeaderFactor, a consulting and training organization, says, “Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.”4
Now, although the employee mindset has a significant impact on customer experience, it can also influence so much more. Employees' mindsets determine how much effort they will put into their jobs and their overall performance. Effort is important regardless of the industry or job, so employee mindset and experience matter in every business. Over the years, I have implemented our training and Culture Hacker methodology in hospitality, of course, but also in sports entertainment, retail, manufacturing, the automotive industry, real estate, the airline industry, the technology sector, on cruise ships, and at malls. We have worked with companies large and small, well established and start-ups. Regardless of your focus, if you want your people to perform better, then our methodology to improve the employee experience should be a priority for you. And, of course, this is a global issue, indicated by the fact that we have worked with companies in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Great Britain.
In addition, how people feel about coming to work is going to impact your ability to retain them. If they are not happy, they probably are not going to stick around for long, especially younger workers who are a lot more comfortable moving between jobs and industries than earlier generations are. The bottom line is, the main reason so many organizations fail to keep their best and brightest talent is that they do not understand or focus on how to make their people happy at work.
Now, I hear you saying “But I thought this book was all about culture.” It is, because “culture” is defined as “the collective mindset and attitude of employees about what they do and who they do it for.” This mindset manifests itself in how employees do things or, in other words, their actions and behaviors when interacting with customers, peers, and the business itself. And culture is top of mind for many owners, executives, and managers today, as indicated by a recent Bersin by Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report that reads: “Employee engagement and culture issues exploded onto the scene, rising to become the number one challenge around the world in our study. An overwhelming 87% of respondents believe the issue is ‘important,’ with 50% citing the problem as ‘very important’—double the proportion in [the previous] year's survey.”5 So there is obviously plenty of talk, but based on the continued lack of great customer service and high turnover rates, there is not enough action. Whether you like it or not, culture must be a priority in your business today.
So I came up with Culture Hacker, a methodology for improving the employee experience and mindset at work. The focus was simple and clear, with a quote from Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant guiding our thinking: “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”6 I wanted to help as many organizations as possible win in the workplace so their customers could receive a better experience. Over the years I have put together a great team of customer experience and human resources experts to execute on this Culture Hacker methodology with our clients.
When I talk about culture, I often get asked “Can you really change it?” My answer is yes, because I truly believe you can affect how people think and feel. Now, you can never control a person's attitude 100% of the time, but I certainly think you can have a big impact on it. One of my favorite quotes on attitude is by Pastor Charles Swindoll, who suggests that life is 10% what happens to people and 90% how they respond to it.7 I believe that organizations have a 90% chance of positively influencing how people feel about their jobs though the employee experience. This is an important idea, because while we might not be able to influence our employees' attitude 100% of the time, it suggests that we can certainly make a difference most of the time. And that is an important point for me. Companies can do more to make their people feel better, which in turn will ensure better customer service. And yet many businesses are not and that really frustrates me.
Companies can improve their employees' mindset or change their culture but it is generally not some easy, short-term initiative, and it cannot just be made up along the way. The process of focusing on and evolving culture can never stop, because employees are always changing. Evolving a culture is a transformational process that requires its own plan, the right resources, a focus on the right things, and, most important, the right leaders. So even once you have the right culture in place, you need to constantly measure and check the pulse of your people as their expectations and those of your customers evolve.
Although Culture Hacker is about change, I suggest that a reason we have been so successful with our methodology is that we do not make a big deal about that change. We all know that when we start talking about change, people become uncomfortable, resistant, or even antagonistic. When you start making proclamations of change, people will get scared, which will cause them to be unable to contribute to or support any positive cultural transformation. Remember that when you loudly declare change is on the way, you will also cause the militant few to gather the troops and make it their life mission to resist anything that is suggested or implemented, no matter how positive the intended outcome. So as you approach the idea of hacking or transforming your culture, do it without all the fanfare. Speak loudly with your actions, not your words—like a hacker whose work happens without the end user noticing any change, at least initially. This is the core of our Culture Hacker approach—being subtle and exact, without causing a lot of fuss or distress.
As an example of what not to do consider this example from a client I worked with. A company executive sent a video out to the entire company, stating that their culture was broken and it was time for change. Talk about adopting the completely wrong approach toward change and improving their culture. We saw an employee base that became not only frozen by the idea of change but also miserable, because they were told that their culture and, more specifically, that they as service providers were broken. Rather than promoting a large cultural change and telling everyone that the culture is off, we quietly focus in on individual mechanisms (as explained in this book) that are relatively easy to explain and manipulate, even though they are a part of a larger change effort. Simply put, Culture Hacker is about making big changes quietly.
I want to mention here in the introduction the importance of technology. Technology is changing—and, arguably, enhancing—every aspect of our lives, our jobs, and even the employee experience. New technology is changing how our staffs work, and so it is important that we recognize that the employee experience of the future and many of the mechanisms that influence our employees' mindsets will be managed and organized by technology. Today technology is prevalent in interviewing, onboarding, communication mechanisms, performance management, recognition, career development, and training. So what is the relationship between technology and culture? In their Harvard Business Review article, Ashley Goldsmith and Leighanne Levensaler proposed this: “[W]e like to think of values as the beating heart of culture, processed and organizational structure as the brain, and technology as the nervous system that makes sure heart and head are working together to move us forward.”8 To reiterate this idea, in each chapter we have indicated some technology companies that might be effective partners in a particular area of improving the employee experience. We recommend learning more about the many solutions out there because technology is going to be prevalent in crafting any employee experience, whether we like it or not.
Finally, let's talk about money, specifically how much you pay your employees. Although this book explains the most influential mechanisms that define how your staffers feel about coming to work, I do not spend time discussing salaries or wages. The reason is twofold. First, research indicates that money is not a strong motivator in employee performance and engagement.9 Generally, once basic needs have been met, money is not the motivator we think it is. Second, I do not focus on salary or wages because I recognize that it is often not an easy variable to change, especially in a small business or when you are not in a position to effect salary increases. So the Culture Hacker methodology focuses on everything else that can influence the culture and mindset of employees.
Speaking of small businesses, because I have owned, coached, and managed a few of them over the years, I am very aware of the stresses and challenges associated with owning and running such ventures. As a result, I wrote this book with small business owners in mind too. The lessons and practices offered apply just as easily to small companies as to large ones. In fact, I've written this book in such a way that small business owners with limited or no human resources infrastructure can and must use the tactics herein to stay competitive and grow.
I wrote this book to share my insights, best practices, and inspiration for how you can create, manage, or hack your culture—to improve your customers' experiences, your employee retention, and organizational performance. By impacting all three things I know there are direct benefits to the profitability and performance of any company, which is why I believe the focus on culture should be a priority for every business person today. Thank you for reading, and thank you for wanting to make a difference in how your people feel about coming to work. There's one more nice side effect of all this—it will make you happier at work too!
Notes
1.
Ursula K. Le Guin,
The Left Hand of Darkness
(New York, NY: Ace Books, 1987.), p. 183.
2.
Howard Schultz,
Pour Your Heart Into It
(New York, NY: Hyperion, 1997), p. 182.
3.
Jyoti Thottam, “Work: Thank God It's Monday!”
Time
165, no. 3 (January 2005).
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015878,00.html
4.
Timothy R. Clark, “The 5 Ways That Highly Engaged Employees Are Different,” TLNT, June 19, 2012.
https://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/the-5-ways-that-highly-engaged-employees-are-different/
5.
Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the New World of Work
(New York, NY: Deloitte University Press, 2015).
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/at/Documents/human-capital/hc-trends-2015.pdf
6.
Quoted in Jennifer Robinson, “Saving Campbell Soup Company,”
Gallup Business Journal
, February 11, 2010.
http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/125687/saving-campbell-soup-company.aspx
7.
Charles R. Swindoll, “The Value of a Positive Attitude,” Insight for Living Ministries (November 2015).
https://www.insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/the-value-of-a-positive-attitude
8.
Ashley Goldsmith and Leighanne Levensaler, “Build a Great Company Culture with Help from Technology,”
Harvard Business Review
(February 2016).
https://hbr.org/2016/02/build-a-great-company-culture-with-help-from-technology
9.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, “Does Money Really Affect Motivation? A Review of the Research,”
Harvard Business Review
(April 2013).
https://hbr.org/2013/04/does-money-really-affect-motiv
1CultureMore Than Just an HR Thing
Brand is just a lagging indicator of a company's culture.
—Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos1
Every owner, executive, and manager is responsible for his or her team, department, or company culture. No excuses. Culture is no longer just a human resources (HR) priority or thing; it is a fundamental business thing.
Culture is the collective mindset and attitude of your employees. The mindset your employees bring to work every day determines how they will take care of your customers, how much effort they will put into their work, and whether or not they will stay with you long term. The impact of a negative culture within an organization is tremendous. Poor customer interactions, high turnover, and under performing employees cost organizations—depending on their size—thousands, millions, and even billions of dollars. The research from across industries is clear: when your employees are more engaged, your company is more productive and profitable; leading to better shareholder returns. Culture is the most important business thing today.
When it comes to culture, the question is not “Do you have a culture?” because you do, and every company does. The real question is “What type of culture do you have today, and is it meeting the expectations of your owners, customers, and employees?” This question really is at the heart of what every manager must consider: Is your culture making your business better, delivering the desired individual and team performance, turning customers into fans, and causing your best people to stay? If it is not, know that there are things you can do to change your culture to where you and your staff want it to be.
Many owners, executives, and managers focus their energies and investments on business, financial, operational, or marketing strategies, but the reality is that a culture strategy will have a greater impact on your business than any other thing. Peter Drucker's phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”2 is probably more relevant in business today than ever before. Employees are the ones defining your business, it's value and reputation, and for that reason, the ability to attract, retain, enable, and maximize your talent is critical for your business today.
Culture is a business thing, and all owners, executives, and managers must be involved (along with HR, if you have that department) to get the right culture in place for your business. According to Jay Haines, founding partner of Grace Blue, a global executive search company, “The cultural piece is to my mind now the single most important component of any chief executive role.”3 Now, the problem I see in many organizations is that culture is just an HR responsibility. Whether I'm speaking with an owner, executive, or manager, when I ask who is responsible for the company's culture, the person almost overwhelmingly says “human resources.” This is the first problem I have with many organizations and the people running them today—they are leaving the task and responsibility of employee attitude up to a single person or team, when, in fact, it is everyone's responsibility. As HR expert Michelle Crosby recently stated on our Culture Hacker podcast, “Culture needs to be owned by leaders at every level. Human resources has to play a role as a facilitator of that process, but not the owner of that process.”4 So with HR acting as the facilitator, everyone else must take on the responsibility of creating, supporting, and delivering an employee experience that instills a positive mindset, a delight in serving others, and a desire to make things happen.
Now, if you are an HR manager or, in fact, any manager who views culture as a priority, you may be nodding your head in agreement, but I bet you are also thinking about those owners, executives, or managers around you who need some convincing. So let's consider in more detail the three areas where I think culture is most strongly impacting your business's profitability and performance today: your customer experience, how much effort your people put into their work every day, and your ability to retain your best and brightest people.
How Culture Determines the Customer's Experience
As you read in the introduction, I wrote this book because of the lack of service and consideration offered to customers by so many organizations today. Obviously, I want to make sure this point is front of mind. Now, I have sat with managers who plainly told me they are not a service-based organization, so maybe these rules do not apply. My response was simple: “Do you have customers?” Their response, of course, was yes. I continued on to say that in today's world, you need to start thinking of your business as a service-based organization, no matter your product or industry, because customers, regardless of what you are providing them, expect service, a great experience, or even just appreciation in return for their business. Also, when it comes to customers, you must understand that organizations have both internal and external customers. Although some of your staff members will not deal with external customers, they work either directly or indirectly with other employees, or internal customers, who do. So when we talk about delivering a great customer experience or service, we also want to consider how staff members work with each other to deliver the products and services of the organization.
We know attitude is critical in customer interactions, both internally and externally. There is an old hospitality axiom that says “Those with a good attitude always provide great service. Those with a poor attitude always provide poor service.”5 This truth of hospitality is important in all industries, because it reminds us that the mindset and attitude of your staff members is probably the single most important aspect of making your internal or external customers feel good and of making your company successful. This line of thinking is not new. It was documented and demonstrated in the 1998 Harvard Business Review article “The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears,” wherein the authors demonstrated that employees' attitudes led to a better customer experience and, in turn, better profits.6
So attitude, or how your employees feel about their jobs, defines the service and experience each customer receives. Every business owner and manager needs to be considerate of their employees' mindset when it comes to customer experience because those attitudes determine how your customers are treated, and how you treat your customers is what they talk about and share with their family, friends, and acquaintances, both in person and online. And specifically, what is being shared online is currently defining your reputation and brand more than any advertisements or marketing initiatives can do today. Mercedes-Benz CEO Steve Cannon said it best: “Customer experience is the new marketing.”7 Customer experience is being defined by how your employees feel, and it indirectly tells us a lot about how you treat your employees. As Michelle Crosby said on the podcast, “The customer experience is a reflection of what is happening inside the organization, whether the organization intends or wants it to. What you reap on the inside is what you sow on the outside.”8 What is happening inside every organization is some type of employee experience. And that experience is manifesting itself in how your employees feel about coming to work, which in turn is defining how your customer feel after every interaction.
Every interaction with your customer counts, whether to increase customer loyalty or customer spend. Lowe's Home Improvement provides compelling findings regarding the impact of employee engagement and customer satisfaction and sales. By quantifying the relationship between employee engagement and sales (starting in 2007), Lowe's found that a conservative difference between the highest- and lowest-engaged stores was more than $1 million in sales per year.9
We have worked with the automotive industry for a number of years, and our work with dealerships, which are either small, one-off businesses often run by a family or centers that are part of larger automotive groups, has reinforced our belief that a focus on the employee experience leads to better customer experiences and profits, due to increased market share. What is most interesting about automotive dealers is that the majority of their revenues come from servicing a vehicle, not selling it, yet many consumers view the process of taking their car in for service as not unlike going to the dentist—very painful. When car dealerships emphasize customer service in the scheduling, drop-off, pickup, and follow-up process, they delight their customers and build not only a strong, loyal customer base, reflected in repeat sales, but also a strong word-of-mouth reputation for service reliability around their community or town. And those touchpoints are all influenced and defined by the interactions customers have with and the attitudes of staff members. Your employees' mindsets definitely impact the loyalty of your customers and the financial position of your company.
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's quote, used to introduce this chapter, is a great line to remember. It basically says your brand is a reflection of your culture, not the other way around as most business people would have you believe. It highlights just how important culture is when it comes to a brand, and it reinforces why, for owners, executives, and managers, culture might be the most important area of focus today in terms of customer service and experience.
How Culture Determines Employee Performance
Great customer service and experience requires a lot of effort, and effort is the result of the energy someone directs toward a task. But a focus on culture is not just about better customer service; it applies to all tasks, roles, and jobs. You have to invest in your culture to ensure that your employees give their best and perform at their best.
