Changing a Culture

Since the inception of Southwest Florida Business magazine, The Service Edge column has emphasized customer satisfaction as the only sustainable competitive advantage for businesses today.

We've talked with business executives and owners. An increasing number of them realize and strongly believe that the pursuit of extremely high customer satisfaction is a critical success factor for their business.

Many envision the ideal state as an organization driven by empowered employees, particularly front-line associates that are performing the work and dealing with customers, that are driven by customer satisfaction and a desire to improve the work processes in which they are involved. We strongly agree.

Unfortunately, many organizations have a long way to go. Shifting paradigms or altering the culture of an organization can be a daunting task. The size and type of organization, the industry it operates in, and the current work culture all impact exactly how each would go about such an agenda for change.

Fortunately, like most other things in life, one doesn't have to totally reinvent the wheel.

Transcending the specifics of the organization, there are a number of things any organizations can do to begin the positive transformation.

In this month's column we highlight three ways organizations can begin to solidify customer satisfaction as the underlying motive for each employee.

1) Establish customer satisfaction as a strategic priority and continually reinforce it to all levels of the organization.

It is important to let all employees know that customer satisfaction is the primary objective of the organization.

While a profit is essential for existence, it is not a means in itself. Satisfied, loyal customers set the stage for profitability--not the other way around.

Start at the top of the organization:

A) Develop the organization's vision, mission and core values/principles to emphasize the importance of the customer.

B) Reinforce the vision, mission and core values so that they are well understood and visible throughout your organization.

At South Seas Resorts Companies, the parent company of South Seas Plantation, Sun Dial Resort of Sanibel Island and seven other resorts, a well-documented Mission Statement clearly emphasizes satisfaction of guests first, employees second and shareholders last. They realize that satisfied customers and employees are a precursor to positive financial performance.

Allyson Carter, guest services training manager at South Seas, feels the resort's orientation program is an excellent starting point for getting new employees on the right track.

"We share our vision, mission and what we call guiding principles with our new employees," she says. "We let them know exactly who we are and what we offer."

Employees quickly realize that providing "extraordinarily pleasing and memorable experiences for our guests" is what they do.

C) As the leaders of your business, make a visible personal commitment to customer satisfaction by incorporating a greater customer focus into the way you conduct yourself.

Use meetings and informal conversations to emphasize the customer.

It will not take long before all associates realize that customer satisfaction is not the latest "flavor of the month."

2) Demonstrate commitment to employee development, satisfaction and overall well-being

Inadequately trained and unsatisfied employees are typically less inclined to take the extra step to make their (and your) customer happy. As intuitive as it sounds, it is alarming how little many organizations invest in the development and satisfaction of their people.

When delighting customers is the primary goal, investing in employee development and well-being yields significant returns.

A) Take the time to determine exactly what employee skills are necessary to achieve positive customer outcomes that are aligned with the mission and vision. Use this information to develop an employee profile for hiring and training employees to become the ideal customer-focused employee.

B) Provide training to close the gap between where your employees' skills are now and where they should be for maximum performance. Providing employees with skills to measure and improve their own work processes, to problem-solve and to interact effectively in meetings and in groups are excellent starting points for organizations preparing to fully empower their staff.

C) Measure employee satisfaction and use the results to set goals for enhancing those areas in need of improvement. Employee satisfaction surveys can be a wonderful tool to objectively understand how employees feel about the organization and their job. Just make sure to act upon the results.

When employees see significant commitment on behalf of the organization to enhancing employee development, satisfaction and overall well-being, it fosters a similar commitment from the employee to the organization and its customers.

At Hope Hospice at Health Park Circle in Fort Myers, the mission is to improve the quality of life for the terminally ill and their loved ones.

With this very difficult task ahead of them, the employees strive to create a very positive environment not only for their patients and their patients' families but their employees as well.

President and CEO Samira Beckwith says, "Promoting a culture of service to patients and families is of paramount importance.

We place a strong emphasis on staff development, providing programs to sharpen employees' skills in caring for their patients and families as well as maintaining their own emotional health. An interdisciplinary team approach to care-giving also promotes and environment of mutual support among staff."

Hope Hospice has realized what many other organizations are coming to grips with: Customer and employee satisfaction goes hand in hand -- it is difficult to have one without the other.

3) Recognize people for the types of behaviors that you want to perpetuate throughout the organization.

The concept of recognition in the work place is not new, nor overly complicated--but it works. For the greatest results, first:

A) Think through and develop a clear picture of the types of behaviors that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction for the organization. This allows you to know what to look for, fosters consistency and ensures that recognition, when done properly, encourages the appropriate behaviors.

It also provides a framework for which recognition programs or systems can be developed through out the organization.

Yoder Brothers Farms in Alva designed its recognition program to recognize employees for positively impacting their next process customer.

This means not only external customers (paying customers) but their internal customers as well (other employees or parts of the business that are served by Yoder employees.)

A recognition committee m