I have to tell you. One of the most exciting aspects of my activity as Digital Customer Service consultant is having conversations with a vast array of organizations. Business belonging to various industries, sizes and of course different approach when it comes to customer relationships. As in the last 12 months many customer service managers told me that culture is one of their key topics, l’m going to show you two frequent scenarios.
1° ‘We’re talking a lot about culture, but…’
Some organizations are having internal conversations about culture because they have realized that it plays a crucial role for their business. Nevertheless they’re still at an early stage because their have not yet:
- Set up their core values – thus their culture
- Reviewed them – where already present
- Linked them to strategic business goals
- Deployed them toward the end customer with a cycled, cross-department approach involving sales ↔ customer service ↔ marketing.
Focus: in such cases even though some results are encouraging, the biggest hurdle is changing mindset and habits that have been used throughout the years, sometimes decades. That’s why internal resistances is strong. In summary, these organizations find themselves at a sliding door: being satisfied with the partial results already achieved or standing out from competitors, being aware though that further efforts and budgets will be necessary.
2° ‘Thanks to our management we have… ‘
Other organizations instead have evolved their internal culture. They have already enjoyed effective results because they’ve deployed a clear road map based on intermediate ‘baby steps’: build, consolidate, promote and grow. In this second scenario top management have been ambassadors of this culture (r)evolution from the very beginning, boosting it amongst every business area. Internal resistance to change was way lower than the first above mentioned case scenario. Accordingly, developments and results came faster and were easily scalable, thanks to such an approach. Personal note: having worked for 20 years within organizations, I know from first hand experience how many efforts are needed just to introduce slight changes!
A winning case
Here’s what a client told me during a recent call we had. I’m so happy for them and I could tell her pride while she was pronouncing these words.
In recent years we have seen a great change. Our sales department colleagues have nicknamed us ‘their angels’ for tasks that we in customer service have been carrying out for years. In this change of pace the sales manager played an active, crucial role: in fact He publicly acknowledged the strategic role of our customer service. – P. G., Head of Customer Service
What about you?
After sharing these two frequent scenarios I face with prospects and clients, I’m curious to know about your first hand experience. To which extent is culture relevant in your organization? How do your customers clearly perceive and understand your values?
Feel free to respond here or send me a brief voice message.
Have great conversations.
Immagine in evidenza: Unsplash.com
