Can You Recognize a Customer Service Culture? Do You Have One?

Employees and customers experience your customer service culture in different ways and it’s that complex nature of culture actually drives its power in transforming and inspiring people.

One reason organizational culture does not make the priority list of leaders is that it is hard to define. It’s squishy. It’s complex. Sometimes it’s even contradictory.

Employees will experience your culture in different ways and even describe it differently. With all the other challenges your business faces, I can see why culture takes a back seat. It turns out, however, that the complex nature of culture actually drives its power.

Can You Recognize a Customer Service Culture? Do You Have One?

Jamie Notter’s e-book “Culture that Works: How Getting Serious About Culture Unlocks New Performance”, does a fantastic job of identifying and discussing the nature of culture. Jamie is a speaker, writer, and consults to help companies improve their organizational culture.

Organizational culture is the collection of words, actions, thoughts, and “stuff” that clarifies and reinforces what a company truly values.

Look at those organizations that seem to get culture right. Culture is the behaviors, norms, thoughts and actions expected of the members of your organization. It’s what you hope people will aspire to be and the way they carry out those aspirations.

Customer service culture is action

Many companies have lengthy mission statements but little of it is translated into everyday thoughts, words, and actions exhibited by the individuals in the organization.

Most organizations claim to deliver good customer service or at least aspire to wow customers with their customer experience, but then go about doing the same thing that has been done in the past or that everyone else in the industry is doing, things that customers have expressed time and time again are not what is needed.

So having the aspirations is not enough. Having the declarations is meaningless. Going through the motions, without the direction is wasteful. Creating a customer service culture requires much more than having that. You have to connect thoughts, words, deeds.

Building a customer service culture requires clearly defining, developing, and delivering. It’s in the doing of these that your organization’s culture will be established.

A customer service culture isn’t what you claim to be, it’s what you are.

So, now I’ll ask you to think about your culture. Take time out for a customer service culture assessment. Think about the words, thoughts, processes, rules, actions, all of your organization’s decisions and practices and evaluate them against what you truly want it to be.

Does your customer service culture training cover the right material needed to clearly establish your culture to your organization? Would you customers agree that your customer service culture and mission is carried out in your words, thoughts, and actions?