A classic example of poor service in the US has long been the Department of Motor Vehicles. This is the government agency that grants and renews licenses for drivers and vehicles. If you drive or own a vehicle, you head to the “DMV” for a license every few years. For years customers have complained about the bureaucracy, lack of caring attitude, and generally poor service at DMV.

My recent experience, however, was positive – friendly and knowledgeable staff, and a more efficient process. Everything moved smoothly, till I got to the “new picture” line. Here the technology was out of date, the process slowed down, customers became more demanding, and the staff were clearly annoyed. This service breakdown was near the end of the entire license renewal experience, leaving many customers feeling that DMV service was still poor, when really it was poor in only one area. This is true for the customer’s service experience in many organizations. The areas requiring service improvement reflect poorly on other areas where service is actually quite good.

So how do you consistently create positive experiences from end to end for customers? We teach our clients the process of identifying the “Perception Points” in a Service Transaction. Perception Points are those moments and touchpoints when customers experience your service and form their opinions. And we provide our clients a Common Service Language to enable everyone to consistently communicate, identify and improve the service levels at all Perception Points.

This common framework applies to both internal and external service. This is vital since internal service issues often lead to an external service problem. For example, incomplete or inaccurate sharing of customer’s information between departments leads to negative experiences when the customer has to repeat herself.

One manager I know recently implemented internal service level agreements to address such situations between departments. She did not want to create a heavily documented procedure for internal departments to follow. Rather, her intention was to enable all team members to consider their internal customer’s experience throughout the business processes. Her new agreements led to regular conversations between colleagues to identify pain points and possible improvements, and these conversations occurred on a regular basis, not just during a crisis.

Five steps to create your internal service agreements:

1. Identify the internal issues that adversely impact the customer’s experience.

2. Identify the internal teams that need to work together to solve them.

3. Setup team meetings to brainstorm and make new commitments to each other.

4. Keep it simple. Keep it real. The ‘Service Agreement’ could be a simple flipchart outlining the process, and committed service levels.

5. Review these agreements periodically, share best practices internally and keep improving the service experience.

Ultimately, the purpose of the internal service agreements is to build common awareness and secure commitment from all people and departments involved. Service is a dynamic experience for customers and service providers. Service agreements must generate enthusiasm and evolve with the business — not become outdated procedural documents gathering dust.

I listen to the seemingly endless voice prompt instructions, none of which offer me a single source to speak with a human being. I pick the most suitable choice and find myself thrown further into the IVR maze, with more choices, even further from the answer I desire.

I begin hitting the “0” key repeatedly. The automated script, perhaps sensing my frustration, sends me back to the start! I am pretty sure this system is punishing me for my lack of patience.

I begin again. This time I make different selections. Finally, to my surprise and delight, after a long series of hopeful button presses on the second round, I am speaking with a real person! Great joy! I am so excited! I quickly fire off all my questions.

There is a pause… then he apologizes and explains these questions must be answered by my local store, and he needs to transfer me back to that location – which is the number I dialed in the first place. Before I can say anything more, he puts me into another IVR system which prompts me to enter my zip code to help identify my local store… and off I go to the “correct store location” that I first dialed. Once again I hear the commands of an IVR, and once again I navigate eventually to a living, breathing (and hopefully serving!) human. Finally I find someone who can answer my questions, in the store location I originally called, at the store where I originally made my purchase.

Wikipedia states that the term “The Experience Economy” was first described in an article published in 1998 by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. In the article, they described an experience economy as the next wave of economic development following the agrarian economy, the industrial economy, and the most recent service economy.

My recent IVR experience made me reflect: Is our economy developing to deliver a better experience, or is the customer experience being sacrificed in the name of better “economy”. Has the recent financial crisis altered our ways of thinking about delivering service? Are companies now choosing to use the word “economy” as an excuse that degrades the experience of clients, customers and colleagues?

The current list of Fortune 500 companies contains more service companies and fewer manufacturers than ever before. You might think this means that companies are more focused on SERVICE than ever before. Yet when I did a quick online search for “Service and Economy”, here are the first headlines on the list (company names have been removed) :

… revenue drops, plans to lay off 6,000
… may cut 4,000 U.S. jobs as part of work shift
… to cut home broadband perks to reduce costs
… freezes salaries from CEO on down

How do you think these company reactions to current economic conditions have affected the end customer?  How has the user experience been compromised?  Has “economy” become synonymous with cutting costs, while “The Experience Economy” has been deferred, downgraded or delayed? As headcounts are reduced, has the value of loyalty, credibility and trust also been discounted?

When a client or potential client reaches out to you, they want to interact with you as their supplier, partner, or trusted advisor.  They have a concern, an important question, an urgent problem or even a complaint. Each interaction has a powerful impact on your customer’s view and their opinion of your organization.  What is the impact of this person being tangled in an IVR web? Or receiving an automated email response stating that the person they need is out of the office for a week? How have these shortcuts, in pursuit of greater economy, impacted the ultimate experience?

If you are in service, are you still committed to serving?

Look to the left. I saw a young man walking toward the crosswalk, his cell-phone perched by his ear. He was obviously in a heated conversation.

Look to the right. An elderly woman was stalled in the middle of the crosswalk on her mobility scooter. In about 20 seconds I would either witness a massive traffic jam, or a horrific accident.

I instantly reached for the door handle so I could jump out and help. But, that’s when I witnessed something phenomenal. While all the other pedestrians kept moving, the young man with the cell phone saw the woman’s situation and stopped his heated conversation. He jammed the cell phone in his pocket and ran quickly to help the elderly woman in distress.

But as the young man stepped behind the woman’s scooter, she turned and did something unexpected. She yelled at him. I couldn’t hear the conversation but from the young mans gestures it was clear the woman wasn’t sharing her gratitude at all. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

How does this situation reflect the corporate world today? It looks like a service crisis to me. Most companies and service providers are like all the people who just keep walking-living by the rule of “It’s not my problem.” But, there are some special people who step out of their way to place your needs above their own. Yet because it’s so rare and unexpected, we often don’t show them the gratitude they deserve.

Here’s lies the challenge to you — and to all of us. To truly uplift service, we need to recognize and appreciate those who give it to us. Recognition means that you and a great service provider both walk away with a smile. It means making the effort to acknowledge great service. Saying “thank you”. Stepping out of your own way to write a letter, tell a manager, send an email, blog about it, tweet about it or tell the story on your Facebook page.

Imagine how you can uplift service by telling the manager at a hotel how well a bellman treated you. Imagine how much you can uplift service in your community by writing a letter to your postal office, garbage collector, or utility company — those people who rarely receive praise for the essential services they provide. Imagine getting great service from any establishment, in person, on the phone or even through the Internet, and asking right then and there to speak to that person’s manager because you thank and praise the individual who went out of their way to serve you.

When you recognize someone for great service, it tends to gets repeated. And if you want to see how quickly you can elevate the service in your life, here are three simple things you can do.

1. Take and share a picture. When you receive great service, ask the service provider if you can take their picture. Send it to his or her boss with a comment that reads, “This person’s service makes me love your company.” Or post the picture on your social page and tell the world about this uplifting service provider.
2. Ask the service provider how they want to be appreciated. A great realtor may not care about impressing her manager, but she may really appreciate for a testimonial for the company website. Recognize people the way they want to be recognized-because they served you the way you wanted to be service.
3. Click. Click. Click. It takes just a few clicks to show someone you appreciate their service by sending them this article. Perhaps a company you visit frequently. Maybe your hairstylist, your mechanic, or your accountant. Or, maybe it’s that person you meet in the middle your life who goes out of their way to serve you. Send them this article with the comment: “Thank you, and well done! When you read this article, you’ll understand why I’m sending it to you.”

Look for uplifting service. We all have the power to uplift service in the world. And, contrary to popular belief, it’s not accomplished only through complaints. Through simple service recognition we can all immediately make a contribution and make the world a better place. Make your contribution now. Send this article to someone who deserves the recognition.

Uplifting service providers seek to make each perception point a positive experience for customers, clients and colleagues. Many of these points involve communications: what prospects, customers, colleagues, and partners experience as a result of what has been heard, read, or said.

How your words and images shape the perception someone has of you, or your business, is tremendously important. In fact, as claimed by Peter Drucker, “60% of all business problems result from faulty communication.” How wonderful would it be if you to avoid or minimize 60% your business problems! One way to do this is to make sure your communications are clear, effective and memorable.

Creating positive, memorable communications can be easy. A model called the 4Cs of Truth in Communication stands for Comprehension, Connection, Credibility and Contagiousness. This was used widely in the advertising industry where I spent many years before joining UP! Your Service. I believe this model has incredible value for anyone striving to improve service performance or to differentiate based on a culture of superior service.

The First C:  Comprehension

Does your audience easily understand get the main message or idea? What is being instantly communicated by your communication? Keep your messages clear and easy to understand.  If you have explained the message, look again to see if you can say it in simpler terms.

The Second C:  Connection

You know your message makes a connection when it triggers an emotional response for your customer. This only happens when a message resonates with meaning and significance for others. When people say “Now I get it!” then you know you’ve got it.

The Third C:  Credibility

Your audience needs to believe what is being said and how it is being said. Credibility is the most important “C”. Your audience may understand your message, and even connect with your message on emotionally level, but if they do not believe the message is credible it will make no positive lasting impact.

The Fourth C:  Contagiousness

Word of mouth is the best advertising, accumulating credibility as it passes from one person to another. You can make your messages contagious with especially clear, clever or curious messages, images and formats. People love to talk, and they will talk enthusiastically about you when your messages are new, different, and memorable. Or when they include an uplifting call to action.

The perception points in your service communications are everywhere: in your website, literature, social networking, physical environment, product information, packaging, policies, even in the design and messaging of your purchase receipts, office directions and employment applications. Everywhere you communicate you have the chance to be creative, be unique, be memorable.

In addition to these legendary stories are more day-to-day examples of how online information has changed the face of service. Nearly every company, product or service has information and opinion about it circulating on the Internet. This includes a wide range of commentary on the level of service and service experiences you provide. And it may even include outside sources, completely unknown to you, who provide service for your products.

I encountered this recently when trying to solve a problem with a technical device. I looked for a solution on the company’s support website, but there were only simple “how-to’s” for using the product – and very little about solving issues when the product was not working. Then I did a wider web search and found a multitude of helpful resources – but none from the company itself.

These outside resources quickly helped me solve the problem – awesome!  But in the process I also learned how frequently others had encountered the same problem, what new or lurking problems I might run into, and the frustrations many users had experienced when getting repairs or replacements.  I also found a thorough review of competitive products that were serving users better. I chose to keep the device I have, but I did seriously consider exchanging it for a competing product.

The service I received from sources outside the company was fantastic. I solved my problem and learned a lot along the way.  Why couldn’t the company have done the same thing? Solving problems is an ideal opportunity to build greater loyalty and educate customers. We cannot control everything that is said on the Internet about us, but we can offer a compelling online service structure and service message.

I decided to check two other companies where I am a customer – a bank and a furniture maker. I tried to find answers to service questions I have had in the past to see which was more effective – the companies’ websites or information available elsewhere on the internet. To its credit, the bank had a robust help site and much to offer through a site-specific search. (And I did learn about some new fees I was not previously aware of!) The furniture store’s online support was basic but it was fascinating the number of other sites with positive reviews and even better “how-to” instructions than the company offered itself.

So what lessons have I learned, and what can you apply?

1. Service mindset and service attitude are experienced electronically, and not just in person. Many companies concentrate their service improvement efforts on in-person or over-the- phone communications but may not realize the full impact of the impact online mediums. You may have the best service people in the business but if your error messages and support sites are too technical or unfriendly it may not matter. You may have the best service guarantees in your industry but if users are finding all the answers they need from other users on the web it may not matter.

2. It is vital to keep your help website, FAQs and customer forums current. Continually updating these resources to address the most current enquiries, issues and concerns will keep customers on your site and in your care, and not give them a reason to look elsewhere.

3. Provide useful education for customers as you help them solve their problems. Providing solutions and adding more value in the process generates greater loyalty.

4. Use a range of online media to connect and support your customers. This includes your websites, social media, YouTube, chat and electronic support documentation. Discover where your customers congregate online and meet them there.

5. Create online videos that are service-oriented, user-friendly, and helpful for your customers. Video is the fastest growing area of content on the Internet. It’s a vibrant medium that easily goes viral. It’s where you want to be useful, visible, and engaging.

6. Pay attention to what your customers are saying on other websites. Search regularly. When you see a problem trend or major service issue being discussed, add your voice to help address it.  Acknowledging problems, apologizing and offering a fix are far better than ignoring the issue. (This is how Federal Express quickly turned a negative viral video into a public relations opportunity.)

7. When you see someone else providing better service for your product than you are, learn from it!  When “power-users” offer sound advice online, incorporate it! Seek permission to add their comments to your own, appreciating their contribution and creating a richer and more fulfilling experience for everyone.

You cannot control all the information about your company, your services and your products on the Internet. But by paying attention to how you and your customers communicate online, you can upgrade your service and keep your customers loyal. Positive service stories may not be the stuff of legendary viral videos, but the service you provide online can become the source of many positive solutions.

A prime example of effective branding is Starbucks. Core values of the company are service and relationship and this is clearly articulated in the brand message. Starbucks isn’t simply a place to buy a cup of coffee, it is distinguished by offering a personal touch to service. Regular customers at many Starbucks locations form relationships with baristas who know their preferred beverage and other details of their lives. Starbucks has also given rise to the term “third place” since it accommodates both social and business meetings. Walk into any Starbucks and you will invariably see students and business people sipping their lattes with laptops open.

Danny Myers, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City, built his restaurant business on the concept of exceptional service, not only to patrons, but to employees as well. Myers believes that happy employees provide excellent customer service, thereby serving as effective ambassadors for the company brand.

Managing Customer Perceptions

Many businesses spend a large amount of time deciding how they want to be perceived and then communicating this message via advertising and other promotional activities. At the same time, they devote little attention to following up with customers to verify whether the company’s brand message is being accurately perceived. Feedback is essential to ensure that your branding and marketing efforts are aligned with actual customer experiences. Your company brand is perhaps your firm’s most essential asset. It drives customer loyalty which, in turn, drives revenue.

Because branding is so critical to your company’s long-term success, your firm should constantly be evaluating the alignment between brand identity (what your company thinks it is) and brand image (what customers perceive it to be).

Here are some six simple strategies to obtain brand feedback from customers.

1. Ask new customers why they chose your service brand. This can be hard to do as many customers will feel uncomfortable speaking with a company representative directly. For this reason, it is important to establish a comfortable rapport so that customers feel they may speak openly and honestly. An alternative is to hire a consultant to perform this survey as a third party may uncover sensitive information more readily.

2. Ask current and past customers what differentiates your service brand from others. Another approach is to ask customers what thought or image first comes to mind when they consider your company. Then the first thought or image when considering a competitor’s brand. There are no right or wrong answers. Take each answer at face value and recognize that the stated differences will be very instructive in terms of how your brand is being perceived by your target audience. Any misalignments uncovered with regard to your branding message and audience perception can then be readily addressed.

3. Who are your repeat customers? Look for areas of commonality among your repeat customers. This is an important clue to how your brand is perceived in the marketplace. For example, do your customers seem to fall within a certain age or demographic group? Contact these repeat patrons to understand what drives their customer loyalty.

4. Is your business obtaining referrals? If your brand is perceived accurately by customers, then word-of-mouth is a great source of new business. What customers say about your company’s brand speaks louder than any promotional message.

5. Contact customers who chose a competitor. Assume a friendly tone and stress that your call is not sales-oriented. You simply wish to follow up on why they didn’t choose your firm. Again, a consultant performing this survey may obtain more detailed information during a conversation with a company employee.

6. Is your brand an integral part of your core values? Both Starbucks and Union Square align their service branding strategy with company values. Company core values are just that: they are the rock upon which your firm is built and, as such, unchanging. Building your service brand on core values ensures message consistency and facilitates the development strong and attractive of a brand image in the minds of your audience.

Spending time understanding the perception of your service brand is a highly valuable exercise. It ensures that your firm is reaching its intended audience and aligning customer expectations with service delivery.

**

Joel Garfinkle is a leadership coach and the author of Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.

Here at five types of leaders you see most often, and their level of involvement:

1. THE PACIFIST

This leader delegates the business of creating the customer-centered culture to others and reviews occasional reports. He is not really fired up about customers and focuses on other perceived success factors like operational excellence or technological superiority.

2. THE BANKER

This leader hears the plans and signs off on the final budget. He generally forgets about it until the next budgeting cycle, where his most important question is typically: “What’s the Return on Investment?”

3. THE TRACKER

This leader is interested in customer behaviors. He regularly asks for and monitors various customer metrics (dashboard) and doesn’t do much else.

4. THE ROLE MODEL

This leader causes a vision for the organization to be created. He spends significant time with customers, and also attends internal meetings to improve service. He approves changes in appropriate systems and building blocks, picks his top performers to head up the customer/culture initiative and starts every meeting with reports on the organization’s customer health.

One of my customers used to have a cardboard cutout of a person placed in a chair at all executive meetings. On the cutout were the words: “I am the Customer. What would I say?”

5. THE CULTURE ENGINEER

This leader understands the power of culture. He actively manages it for maximum employee involvement, customer acquisition and loyalty. His business card may read something like “Chief Customer Officer”. He might define leadership as: Creating an engaging environment where each individual is willing and able to carry out the vision and mission of the organization.”

Questions for you to consider:

What type of a leader are you?

What type of leaders do you see most commonly in your organization?

What can you do to create a aligned and powerful leadership team?

How can you ensure your customer centricity initiative succeeds?

**

Guest post by Richard Whiteley

Richard is the author of The Customer-Driven Company, Customer-Centered Growth, Love the Work You’re With and, most recently, The Corporate Shaman. He is a co-founder of The Forum Corporation and winner of the Instructional Systems Association Distinguished Service Award. Richard is a long-time consultant and advisor of UP! Your Service.

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.

Heated discussions in the executive suite often revolve around costs and customer service: “Why do we still have service failures when we’ve spent so many resources on solutions?” These discussions are painful and often are replayed over and over again in different ways. They are more likely to spread frustration and create a mood of resignation in managers than produce new or better results.

Emotionally charged territory

Organizations that have difficulty improving service culture and improving the service experience often have a strong hierarchical reporting structure. For an existing hierarchy, the shift from organizational lines of authority to an emphasis on service process and service culture is emotionally charged territory. The change to process-driven service management affects how people work, how they are managed and how their efforts are evaluated. Process-driven management alters the power and influence of individuals and units.

Even managers who haven’t been educated in service processes or in leading a vibrant service culture recognize intuitively that a shift to process management will rock their world. As a result, it is common to find managers who would rather talk about process improvement and work at the edges of the issues rather than implement a complete customer-service solution.

When an organization shifts to process orientation without updating its structure to support the effort, failure can be expected and, indeed, is common.

Process is not difficult to understand, and customer-service process failures are comparatively easy to analyze. With skillful analysis, implementation planning and effective mobilization, the task of finding ways to improve processes is rarely out of reach.

Changing structure and service culture, however, presents an entirely different challenge.

Mom was correct

When your mother reminded you to stand up straight, it turns out she was deeply aware of the power of structure. In our bodies, good posture equals effective structure. People with good posture digest their food better than those who slouch. With good posture you can throw a ball farther and with more accuracy, and you are less prone to injury. It is the same with organizations. Structure that is aligned with what we promise our customers enables a healthy service environment.

Here is an example of the impact of physical structure on service delivery.

In hotels, the concierge is a center of hospitality. A concierge’s primary job is to provide for the needs of guests and to anticipate what will make their visit more satisfying. He or she can help shape guests’ choices to complement their current mood and needs. This offering is an exquisite gift and when executed well, it is service of a very high order.

We recently found concierge desks that were redesigned to reflect a modern architectural look. They are beautiful, but the structure of the redesigned desk works against the concierge. Instead of having all materials right at hand (as the former desks did), the arrangement of the new desk often forces a concierge to leave the location to retrieve basic items, such as packing slips, small-size envelopes and boxes for overnight courier service. The result is that when a guest approaches the concierge with something to send, the concierge grimaces ever so slightly because he must leave his station to fulfill the request instead of naturally opening up the moment of service. A concierge knows that while she is gone, this guest will be kept waiting—actually a lack of service—and there is always the chance that others will arrive and find no one at the desk, making their first encounter empty instead of fulfilling. The structure of the new desk has shaped behavior in a negative way. Those of you who have frontline experience can think of many similar examples from your own work.

Structure can intentionally be shaped to be constructive and to nourish those involved in delivering their company’s service promise. The key is to start with the customer service promise and develop processes that enable 100 percent delivery on that promise. Design reporting relationships to effectively manage these processes. Test the physical structures to see if they efficiently support on brand service. Teach service principles and practices to drive a strong service culture. Together these create a solid platform that makes your best service efforts shine.

Want proof? Look into the companies that you most admire. You will see that their processes are aligned with their service promise and that those companies have intentionally designed an infrastructure that facilitates excellence in the individuals who serve their customers.

Copyright, Todd Lapidus. Contact the author at www.c3corp.com

As a previous blog post stated, leaders who want to create a cultural revolution—and make it stick—must get everyone involved. They must engage and empower everyone at every level. Strong leadership, especially on the people side, is essential. Yet it remains elusive. Why?

Responses commonly include:

• Building service culture is seen by leaders as “feel good” activity; nice to have but not essential to the business. Leaders will pursue this when they have the time, but it is not part of the core business.

• There are too many other serious business issues that take priority. These may be product, process or financial initiatives, and are often seen as having greater short-term importance to shareholders or stakeholders.

• Frequent changes in top leadership and organization structure make it difficult to commit and sustain a culture building strategy over time.

Let’s face it. Engaging, focusing and inspiring employees can be challenging. Role modeling new behaviors over a sustained period is hard work.

Question:
If you are a leader, what issues keep you from supporting a service culture change? What enables to give your full support?

Question:
If you are an implementer of a service initiative, how have you successfully gained and sustained top leadership support?

Some of these revolutions were due to growing frustration at their countries’ dysfunctional systems, some were more forward looking. Most began as independent affairs, not creations of specific political parties. Many were enabled by easy access to—and the global reach of—technology (social media in particular).

They all had one thing in common – millions of people were committed and involved. These revolutions were not triggered by inspirational leaders with answers to problems – in fact, very few people even knew the solution, the sentiment that mattered was ‘I know what I don’t want’.

What does this have to do with your service culture?

Consider this: Over 70% of large scale change initiatives fail. (source: HBR)
The human and financial cost is enormous. The larger the change implementation, the higher the risk and cost. When you consider that very smart people are typically involved in designing these large scale interventions, it is apparent that ‘knowing the right solution’ is not enough.

When leaders in large organizations come to work with us, they are not looking for incremental improvements in service levels. They see the need for large scale change, almost revolutionary shifts in their culture and service performance – whether for improvement or differentiation. And they want to build a strong service culture to make sure the improvements stick.

One of the first conversations we have with every client is about scale and speed – and the need to get the entire organization involved quickly. This is not a nice-to-have for successful culture shifts – it is essential, and more importantly, easy to overlook.

Size does matter.

As human beings, we view reality as a function of, and only of, agreement. When it was ‘agreed’ that the world was flat, people lived as if the world was really flat. Most ships would turn back before they lost sight of land. In your culture for example, when it is agreed that ‘customers only care about price’ or ‘that department is always slow’, everything your organization does is a manifestation of that agreement.

We crave for agreement. Countless studies and experiments in psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience have shown this to be true. Few people will go against a crowd, even if they know themselves to be right.

Therein lies the power as well. The key to a cultural shift is in the ability to alter these agreements. And this cannot be done by the leadership team or a few individuals alone. Everyone, from finance to frontline, needs to align with your service vision and agree that service excellence is critical. And everyone needs to understand that they can genuinely do something about it.

(Yes, you can get employees to do something by ordering them around, but that’s not an approach that produces sustainable results.)

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Peter Drucker got it right.

Leaders and change designers typically spend a lot of time figuring out the right strategy for every new large scale change initiative. The quest for data, analysis, validations and approvals often result in huge reports and no immediate action. The conversations are more theoretical and intellectual than actionable. Many pure consulting businesses thrive on this appetite for analysis.

But only a very small percentage of all employees are actually involved during these early stages. And when a new strategy is ‘rolled out’ to the entire organization, the level of ownership, emotional involvement and commitment required is often missing. The existing culture nips the new strategy in its bud.

Organization cultures are built on long histories of conversations and agreements. Trying to shift these top down, chipping away slowly, does not work. A culture likes status quo, it’s like an organism that protects itself from the fear of uncertainty that change brings with it. The larger the organization, the tougher it is to break through.

Go big. Go fast.

Get a high percentage of your people involved early and you will see the culture shift. Leadership’s role is critical to prevent chaos and create the conversations, but not sufficient to build an uplifting service culture . What you know at the top does not matter as much as how many are engaged and involved throughout the organization.

For most companies today, to change or not to change is not the question. Change is necessary to survive. Large organization culture change is possible, and it can be done quickly and economically with a high likelihood of success. Going big and going fast—neither may be easy—but that’s another reason why those who do both, will succeed in differentiating themselves.

One example of this in your own life is you reading this blog post. You might agree with everything being said on this blog, but unless the rest of your leadership team and organization agrees and acts accordingly, you won’t see quick or dramatic improvements in service levels where you work. So, go big and go fast. Share this post quickly and widely with the members of your team.