Erik Fisaga
Contributing Writer
Success Academy Trainer

I guess it’s the little things that sometimes stand out and create either a great experience or one that leaves a negative lasting impression for you.  The thing that really stands out about these experience builders is that you can rarely plan for them.  So how can you protect your business from the unforeseen negative reviews that are sure to appear after these experiences?

CULTURE.  A simple word and one that drives the decisions that impact customer relations.  Webster defines culture as a way of thinking, behaving or working that exists in an organization.  I have been in workplaces with bad culture and those with great culture.  It amazes me that a direct correlation exists between employee morale, high customer service scores and company culture.  It really is quite simple: empower your employees to make decisions benefiting your customers and watch satisfaction (and profits) soar.

Now this sounds great and I even gave you the simple terms to get there, what it means.  Yet there are other questions that must be answered before you can have an empowered culture.

• What type of company culture do you want to be a part of?

This question is great for owners and employees.  And it has honestly been one of my biggest struggles to define.  I must be odd in comparison to others because this question has haunted me for years.  I have worked in organizations whose culture did not match me or my personality.  I would brainstorm about what cultural traits are needed to thrive.  These traits will never stay the same.  Yours will differ from mine, they will change as we age and mature in our careers.  Yet it is these traits that allow success to culminate for the business through us.  Do you need a culture of family, teamwork, training, and learning?  The answer lies within you, you just need to uncover it.

• Do you lead through your behaviors?  What example do you set?

This is important even when you do not have the title to be a leader.  If you are in management, know that your direct reports are watching.  If you only give lip-service to the culture that you want them to mimic, know that they will only follow you based off your examples.

On a side note.  Culture is not always set from senior management and passed down.  Culture can become infectious from the inside and passed throughout an organization.  When people approach me with complaints about their company, I always ask how they proceed through their days.  Upbeat, positive people are able to affect change by living the traits they want around them and this becomes contagious for their coworkers.  Be the infectious agent, from the inside, and see if you can invoke the change in your company culture.

• Is it time to leave?

Culture changes rarely happen fast and they can also provide more heartache.  I was fortunate to be the project manager for the creation and delivery of a cultural change within an organization.  We spent many hours building relationships with leaders throughout the organization to sell our project.  When released, we only trained 65{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of the staff on a new customer-facing procedure before the whole project was shelved!  I was destroyed.  All of that work and all of that time was thrown away because the company was going to miss a monthly goal.  Yes, we were promised our project would return to complete the training for the remaining employees but it was too late.  The “old” culture was still ingrained and too strong to overcome when releasing a new cultural piece.  So I had to ask myself if I could overcome this culture or was it time to move on?

I have heard many things before, but I know one statement that tells you how crushing the current culture of an organization is: “I just need a paycheck.”  If the paycheck is the only thing bringing people back to work each day, then their passion to serve our clients is already lost.  They will do just enough to continue earning that paycheck and not an iota more.  It is those clients that will begin to suffer and they will make your business pay later; with negative reviews and no recommendations.

I want to leave you with a call for action, a blueprint to find success.  I am not going to reinvent the wheel, I want to share with you an example from Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great.

You must have a culture of discipline.  This will stand throughout the whole organization and empower your people to serve as they see fit.  This cultural piece will guide everyone through anything that will be thrown at them.

To succeed, you can also utilize the Hedgehog Concept.

Success with the Hedgehog Concept lies at the intersection of three circles.

Passion:  What is your passion?  What is the passion of your employees?  We provide a service that people need and they also need to understand that all of you are there to serve them.  Let’s show others how passionate we can be about our industry and service of clients.

What can you be the “Best in the World” at?:  The example that comes to mind, for me, is a restaurant.  In my travels to Sarasota Florida, I have discovered this restaurant named Tijuana Flats.  They are self-described as “an American restaurant chain serving Tex-Mex cuisine.”  I know that I could find similar food at a number of similar chains, however, they excel at one thing.  They are the friendliest restaurant chain I have ever walked into.  My experiences have included: an employee holding the door for us to enter. Greetings by the whole staff when we entered and a manager that discovered that we did not live there, so he recommended local activities for us.  They are the best at building relationships with their clients. They took an intangible trait and made it tangible for all who stop in.

What drives your economic engine?: Southwest Airlines Co-Founder Herb Kelleher has shared what their plan for the airline was.  “We were going to offer more for less, not less for less.”  I am sold that you know how to offer more, and remember that the intangible items will stand.  I did not share with you how great the food was at Tijuana Flats, only that the people were the difference maker.  They offer more! You offer more too, or should.

Culture is the driving factor for how others will represent you and your business.  Since the reputation of your business hangs in the balance, you need to ensure that your culture is modeled by your team.  Understand what you want and how your people will respond to it.  It will not be easy if you are changing cultures, but it will be more rewarding than you could have imagined!