A great service culture is always a product of a whole architecture that includes education, service processes and structures that support customer-focused behavior.

Most customer-service improvement efforts fail to provide this type of architecture because their design misses, in particular, the strong impact of structure on behavior. Structure may include reporting relationships or physical structures that best facilitate service process. The designers are wary of changing structures to support service outcomes because such change is emotionally charged, takes a significant amount of effort and requires intense commitment. Yet, few individuals or departments can be effective and shine unless their organizational and physical structures are aligned with their brand’s customer service promise.

Each year we move forward into a wonderful space of creation for the upcoming year. We also have an opportunity to look back at the past year, and then to look forward, to make adjustments to improve the quality of service for our customers, vendors, employees, and community.

Each of us can become a change agent to make a difference. Not only can one person create dramatic change, but one action can. Think about just one thing that would surprise and delight your customers (internal or external customer). Just one thing.

Building a service culture in any organization requires that systems and processes reflect and support service as a key business driver. One system is performance management.

Performance management, performance appraisal, employee review – whatever name you have for it – is a common, often dreaded, and largely under-utilized process for managing an organization. Yet it can be one of the most effective tools for leading change – ensuring a service culture, or any cultural focus, can be created and sustained over time.

The right organizational structure facilitates superior service, sharing of views, rapid decisions, flexible execution and quick responses to unexpected opportunities or problems.

‘Chain of command’ may be good for a marching army, but it has real limitations for creating new service value in a dynamic global market. Customer expectations can change in a minute. How fast can your company respond?

1. Why do we want to change our culture? What do we want that we currently do not have? What do we currently have that we definitely want to change?

2. How will we know we have succeeded? What will we see and hear that is not happening today? What will we stop seeing and hearing?

3. How will we track our progress? How will we measure results? How will we know we have succeeded?

4. What is the business value of this change? What strategic advantage do we seek to achieve? What is the intended financial impact?