Creating a Customer- Oriented Culture

“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc.

In today’s competitive world every one desires to be customer focused and that is the most effective way of standing out from the rest by offering quality service that meets customer expectations which will also contribute to boosting the image of the company. By following a customer first approach, we can build healthy relationships with our consumers by identifying their needs and providing the best possible experience to our customers. We always have to remember one thing that is ‘what’s best for the customer is best for the business‘.

The reason an organization can deliver good or bad customer service comes down to one thing and that is the ‘Culture’ of the organization which is impacting customer service. The most important thing is that the culture inside of the organization is impacting your customer service so we have to set an example of customer service behavior at the top and pass it through all employees.

Top level must treat employees like they want their customers to be treated – even better and this is where customer focused culture begins. Top levels like managers and leaders have to set up a benchmark so that all employees will follow that at least, as after all they are paying us for what they asked us to do!

Below are few points on how can organizations become more customer-oriented:

• Lead by example at leader levels and benchmark your current level: If you want your team to be customer-oriented and care about them then you as a leader has to start doing it. We have to measure and benchmark our current level. That is the very first point in measure and set benchmark as “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”  – Said by Peter Drucker.
• Put customer on the agenda of every meeting or discussion: We have to discuss about customers in every meeting. What impact will your decisions have on our customers? We have to make sure that we are not taking decision that created short term gains at the expense of our relationship with our customers.
• Hire people who are a fit for the culture: We have to make sure we hire right people who fit into the culture you have created. We have to do our best to build a team that’s enthusiastic about customer services.
• Establish policies that are ‘Customer Friendly’: We have to make sure we are not creating rigid policies due to which we have to tell our customer that ‘those are the rules I have to follow, nothing I can do about it’. There is always a way to satisfy the customer.

Always give your customer best you can beyond your benchmark. This is the culture we have to develop and by doing this customer will put more trust on us and will inspire them to buy more, spend more and be advocate of our brand or product to other customers or people as after all the more attention we give to their needs the more valuable they become to our business.