Micah Solomon: Customer-Centered Leadership

Micah Solomon is a Keynote speaker, successful entrepreneur and business leader, and bestselling business author. His latest bestselling book is High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service. 

Click here to access a free chapter of Micah's latest book.

Customer-Centered Leadership:

Leading your business to success through a focus on culture

A consciously developed customer-centered culture is a business advantage that will serve you for years—and inoculate you against competitive inroads. Think for a minute about Southwest Airlines and the lengthy list of would-be category killers that have tried to imitate it: United Airlines’s United Shuttle, Continental Airlines’s Continental Lite, Delta’s Delta Express, and US Airways’s Metro-Jet.

What did these companies lack: Money? Name recognition? Hardly. They lacked Southwest’s relentless focus on culture, which none of its pop-up competitors was willing to slow down to emulate.  And all are now bust.

This is why someone leading a business today – preparing your organization for a bright future for itself and perhaps for the world – needs to focus not just on nuts and bolts, techniques and standards, but on culture.

 

Why focus on culture first?

•  Without a consciously created culture, your leadership won’t last beyond the moment you leave the building.  Any vacation, or even lunch break you take is an invitation for disaster:  The inevitable complaint I hear from consulting clients and at my speeches is this: “Employees act differently when there aren’t any managers around.”  But with a great company culture, employees will be motivated, regardless of management’s presence or absence.

• The number of interactions at a business between customers and staff is nearly infinite, and only a strong, clear pro-customer culture gives you a fighting chance of getting the preponderance of these interactions right.

• The current technological revolution amplifies the problems of not having the correct culture:  Employees not acting in their customers’ best interest will end up having their actions broadcast over Twitter within minutes.

• Business realities are continually changing, and only a strong culture is going to help you respond to, capitalize on, and drive forward these changes in order to serve customers and show your business in the best light.

 

How to start leading through culture.

1. Articulate your central philosophy, in just a few words if possible: a few meaningful words. That’s right: a company’s culture can begin with words, but those words need to represent a decision—something you actually stand for, a decision then expressed in the clearest, and ideally fewest, words. Find a central operating principle.  Think of the Ritz-Carlton’s “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen,” or Mayo Clinic’s  “The needs of the patient come first.”

2. Elaborate on your central philosophy with a brief list of core values -- a list short enough that every employee can understand, memorize, and internalize it, yet long enough to be meaningful. Your core values should cover how customers, employees, and vendors should be treated at all times.

3. Include the wider world: Your people want a sense of purpose, believe it or not, beyond the ability to exercise stock options at a favorable moment. More inspirational a version of the “triple bottom line,” such as Southwest’s “Performance – People – Planet” commitment and annual report card.

4. Reinforce your commitment to these values continually. You may want to go as far as to devote five minutes every morning you stress one value, or an aspect of one value, at your departmental meeting. (This is what the Ritz-Carlton does.)  If that’s too often for your business reality or sensibilities, do it weekly. But don’t save it for the annual company picnic. Annual anything is the enemy of ‘‘core.’’

5. Make it visual. The Ritz-Carlton has ‘‘credo cards’’— laminated accordion-fold cards that each employee carries during work hours. The brand’s entire core beliefs, plus shared basics of guest and employee interactions, fit on that card. (Horst Schulze, the legendary founder of the modern-day Ritz-Carlton, says people chuckled twenty years ago when he said ‘‘laminated card’’; they’re not laughing now.) Zappos highlights one of its core values on each box it ships out. And sometimes ‘‘visual’’ doesn’t mean words at all. One way that FedEx shows that safety is a core value is via the orange shoulder belts in its vans: Everyone can see—from twenty-five yards away—that the driver’s wearing a belt.

6. Make them the focus of orientation. That way, if safety is one of your core values and you stress this at orientation, on day two, when the new employee’s coworker tells him ‘‘In this restaurant, we stack the high chairs in front of the emergency exit when we need more room to do our prep work’’ [This is a real-life example, unfortunately], the new employee will experience cognitive dissonance and work on a way to align the actions of the company with the core values they’re supposed to reflect.

7. Most of all, train, support, hire, and, if necessary, use discipline to enforce what’s important to you. A core values statement is two-dimensional until you bring it to life—with the right people and energetic guidance. ‘‘Maintaining a culture is like raising a teenager,’’ says Ray Davis, President and CEO of Umpqua Bank. ‘‘You’re constantly checking in. What are you doing? Where are you going? Who are you hanging out with?’’ And, sometimes, you have to use some tough love when that teenager is acting up in ways that don’t support the culture you’re working to build.

Comments

[maviyan]

Fine information. Thanks so much, have a good day!
http://www.surveytool.com/customer-complaints/

[Look at these guys]

Magnificent website. A lot of helpful information here. I'm sending it to some pals ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thank you on your sweat!

[creative consulting real estate]

I visited various web pages but the audio feature for audio songs current at this site is in fact wonderful.

[marketing]

Very good post. I'm dealing with some of these issues as well..

[http://a-n-e-k-d-o-t.ru/index.php/Участник:LutherG28y]

Hey There. I discovered your weblog the use of msn. This is a really neatly written article. I'll be sure to bookmark it and return to learn extra of your useful info. Thank you for the post. I'll certainly return.

[http://denverseoranker.com]

It's going to be ending of mine day, however before ending I am reading this fantastic article to increase my know-how.

[Power IGF All Natural]

I have read so many articles on the topic of the blogger lovers but this post is in fact a nice piece of writing, keep it up.

[Baca selengkapnya]

I am genuinely happy to glance at this blog posts which includes lots of valuable facts, thanks for providing such information.

[Anti Wrinkle Cream]

I loved as much as you'll receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an shakiness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly very often inside case you shield this hike.

[Alpha Genix Testosterone Booster review]

Thanks for ones marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you're a great author.I will always bookmark your blog and may come back later on. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice weekend!

[Freya]

great points altogether, you simply received a logo new reader. What might you recommend in regards to your publish that you made a few days ago? Any positive?

[Lowell]

Currently it appears like Drupal is the best blogging platform out there right now. (from what I've read) Is that what you are using on your blog?

[Pure Select Supplements]

Howdy! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to look it over. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I'm bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Wonderful blog and fantastic design and style.

[No2 Extreme Rush]

I am really enjoying the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems? A couple of my blog readers have complained about my site not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any tips to help fix this problem?

[daily Eye Restoration reduction]

Excellent post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I'm impressed! Very useful info specially the ultimate part :) I care for such information much. I was looking for this certain info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.

[Adrenalast Testosterone]

If some one needs expert view concerning running a blog then i suggest him/her to visit this webpage, Keep up the fastidious work.

[www.zeromodal.com]

Hello to all, the contents existing at this site are genuinely amazing for people experience, well, keep up the nice work fellows.