{"id":118172,"date":"2014-10-15T10:37:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T17:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/?guid=e15d59f7b8794a3e4726def2ba924422"},"modified":"2014-10-15T10:38:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T17:38:41","slug":"awesome-culture-as-easy-as-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/awesome-culture-as-easy-as-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Awesome Culture As Easy As Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yours<\/a><\/p>\n

Yours truly rocking the circle desk. How can I help you?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This post was originally published on the ICMI<\/a> blog on October 1, 2014. \u00a0Click here<\/a> to read the original post and other great resources from ICMI.<\/em><\/p>\n

Culture is a funny thing isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 A poor culture almost ensures that your employees will be running for the exits with your customer experience suffering in the process.\u00a0 Ask your newest hire what they think of the company culture and they can tell you if your culture is attractive or not.\u00a0 Now ask your customers and I bet they can tell you a lot about the culture based on their interactions with customer service.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m here to tell you that there is hope\u2014and us customer service folks are perhaps better equipped to improve our company culture than anyone.\u00a0 What\u2019s the trick you ask?\u00a0 You know all of those awesome customer service skills that help you wow customers?\u00a0 Point a few of those inward toward your colleagues and watch your company culture shift.\u00a0 Allow me to name a few so you get what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Lead with empathy<\/strong>– We love the word empathy and for good reason.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about genuinely caring about the feelings of another person.\u00a0 Raise your hand if you don\u2019t have empathy somewhere on a QA form in your call center.\u00a0\u00a0 Customer service leaders, how do you rate the level of empathy you show to your staff?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Watch how you talk about people<\/strong>– Gossip is a fantastic culture killer.\u00a0 It\u2019s so easy in customer service to get in this mode of customer bashing.\u00a0 I know I\u2019ve been guilty of it.\u00a0 Talking poorly about customers affects your attitude toward those customers.\u00a0 In the same way, talking poorly about other employees has that same effect.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Demonstrate that can do spirit<\/strong>– Nothing is more deflating to a customer than when they call customer service for help only to hear a \u201cNo. Sorry, I can\u2019t help you.\u201d\u00a0 In the exact same way, employees hate hearing this same line internally.\u00a0 When an employee comes to you with a problem, adopt a\u00a0buck stops here mentality\u00a0<\/em>and take responsibility for the solution.\u00a0 Then they get to go back to the customer with a solution rather than a sad face.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Lighten up a little bit\u2014or a lot<\/strong>– I love nothing more than a customer service professional that is personable and friendly.\u00a0 It\u2019s like talking to a person instead of a robot.\u00a0 In the same way, it\u2019s ok to have a little fun with your colleagues.\u00a0 It\u2019s ok not to be all business all the time.\u00a0 Teams that laugh together stay together!<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Seek to understand<\/strong>– Those difficult customers are really the true test.\u00a0 By seeking to understand where the customer is coming from, we set ourselves in the best possible place to work with them.\u00a0 The same goes for employees.\u00a0 Those difficult relationships are going to require extra effort and understanding.\u00a0 Tools that help understand the unique strengths and ability of your team are invaluable.<\/p>\n

As leaders, awesome company culture doesn\u2019t just happen and it\u2019s not as simple as planning trips to play paintball or buying lunch for the office\u2014though those can\u2019t hurt.\u00a0 To build a fantastic culture, practice all of those customer service skills that you preach on your most important customers\u2014those people serving your customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yours truly rocking the circle desk. How can I help you? This post was originally published on the ICMI blog on October 1, 2014. \u00a0Click here to read the original post and other great resources from ICMI. Culture is a funny thing isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 A poor culture almost ensures that your employees will be running […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7854,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}