Every organization has a personality and this personality is a result of the collection of personalities within. To this culture geek, the interplay of personalities that create a company persona is a source of endless fascination – not only from the what-is-it-now perspective but in the what-it-could-be department. I hope you’ll agree the possibilities are endless when we start imagining.
So what if you could make a few changes to improve this overall personality. Maybe you’re a manager who is both aware of your enterprise sacred cows and cultural improvement opportunities. As you know, culture progress will improve customer service and, more importantly, the bottom line. May I suggest the following four ideas? Perhaps they’re useful or will trigger other thoughts for your organization’s long-term good.
1. Give your receptionist a raise. Who is the first face or voice for many of your customers? Maybe it’s not a receptionist in your case. Maybe it’s an outside sales person or a repair technician, etc. Whoever this person or team, they should be rewarded on making a great first impression because this initial interaction can be very powerful.
What would you pay for customer loyalty? What would you pay for customer word-of-mouth advertising? Both of these items and more are influenced by the customer’s first contact with your organization. How much attention do you pay to the entry point of your company?
Specific Take-aways:
- Identify who is usually your organization’s first face or voice.
- What are the things you most want in your first customer contact beyond the traditional position description details? Communicate those expectations to the frontline employee.
- In addition to their normal job duties, give pay consideration to this person or team for a critical public relations (PR) role. In the case of a receptionist, the duties are much more than just answering the phone or greeting a walk-in customer. Are you broad enough in the total compensation thoughts?
- How well do you know this employee? Are there any other welcome considerations you could give for the PR role such as time off, education opportunities, cross-training, etc.?
2. Steal your senior executives’ office chairs. For a culture to grow and thrive requires activity. Not just busy work but engaged hearts and minds with the natural variety of perspective. A senior manager that asks multiple questions and does a lot of listening will learn much about what makes the culture tick and how it could be better. Most people are genuinely happy to give their opinions on most topics. Also, asking honest questions has a natural side effect of building trust; what company couldn’t use more of this commodity?
Although these conversations make look like small talk, the smart executive will be constantly on the lookout for cultural facts to include in senior level discussions. and decisions Look beyond the present discussion. What does it mean for your best customers, vendors, suppliers, and alliance partners?
Specific Take-aways:
- Here are starter questions to ask. You are trying to discover what employees thinkabout their workplace, NOT just what they say.
- If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
- If you could make one policy/software/process improvement in your area, what would that be?
- If you were the boss, what would you do? OR What do you think is the right thing to do in this case? (In response to a complaint.)
- How could we lower the use of sick days?
- What makes you run to work and walk home? What makes you walk to work and run home?
- Would you recommend your mother work here? If so, why? If not, why not? (Thanks to Lee Hawkins for this question.)
- As you talk to employees, tune into their body language. How open are they? What would a casual observer say about the conversation? What can you learn on improving the culture by this feedback? How can you improve the feedback?
- Get used to asking “why” as a discovery question, not as a preface to an accusation.
Next time, we’ll explore the final two steps to a better culture. All the best!
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- Changing Values | Compound Thinking – Changing Values. June 4th, 2007 by Mark Ramm. It’s hard to change your corporate culture, because it requires changing the way people think, feel, and act. And smart people can do really stupid things when they try to change other people. …
