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.

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.

I was relaxing on a flight last month in my usual window seat, happily reading a book with the soft, natural sunlight beaming through the window. A member of the cabin crew passed by and, seeing me reading, stretched out her hand and switched on the light above me. She smile, and then she walked away.

I was distracted from my reading, and a little puzzled. The extra lighting from above was too bright for my comfort. I like soft, even dim lighting when I read, but friendly cabin crew did not know that. She thought she was serving me well. After she left, I reached up and turned off that the light.

Richard Whiteley’s blog post – ‘Six reasons why ‘customer centricity’ initiatives fail’ – highlights how often initiatives fail due to inadequate education.

He wrote: “While mindset matters, great service needs great skillsets too… Proper training is required”

This stirred up memories of my early experiences working in a retail company.

Most new frontline staff joined the company with a very positive mindset and uplifting attitude – but as they regularly encountered situations they were not prepared for, their enthusiasm started fading.

Going away on holiday is an ideal time to experience service from traditional service providers: airlines, hotels, restaurants and retail operators. As a member of the UP! Your Service team, I recently traveled overseas on vacation, and was eager to experience the the service cultures and individual service providers I encountered. I thought it would be fun “field work” (much to the dismay of my family) and an opportunity to get fresh insights on service in new places.

What came of my experience, however, was much different than a collection of evaluations about service and service providers.

“See the world from your customers’ point of view” is a catchy and familiar phrase, but not always easy to accomplish. The world view of any other person is influenced by his or her past experiences, current concerns, future hopes and fears – not yours.

It may not be easy, but understanding what someone else perceives is essential to improving the service you provide. How else can you know what to do, change or do better if you can’t get an accurate view of how you are performing in your customer’s eyes right now? This means shifting your attention from what you are doing to caring about what someone else is experiencing.

The best service isn’t necessarily about getting a plane to depart on time or sticking to policy. In fact, it can mean making a decision to put one customer above others.

The pilot held back a plane with hundreds of passengers for twelve minutes – so that one passenger could make the flight. As Christopher Elliot, the consumer advocate and journalist who first broke this story wrote: “Twelve minutes may not sound like a lot to you or me, but every second counts when you’re an airline. Southwest can turn an entire plane around in about 20 minutes, so 12 minutes is half an eternity.”

In this instance, the pilot put one category – service mindset – above others in the four categories of value in “The BIG Picture”

1. Is our leadership team in agreement on key business goals and priorities? Do they understand the importance of a strong service culture to achieve these goals?

2. Do our service training programs teach the same fundamental principles to the entire organization? Are these principles being applied to create measurable value for our customers?

3. Does our organization share a common language from top to bottom and across departments when talking about service? Do we use this same language to talk about external service to customers and internal service to colleagues?

4. Do all our employees and partners clearly understand our service vision and act to make it real every day?

Service education leads to creative thinking and practical action. This action produces new and greater service value. What happens in effective service education?

1. A new understanding of service value
2. Colleagues learn and apply a common service language
3. Personal behavior models beliefs
4. Taking new and valuable actions

Managers are the essential link between service education programs and the results your organization wants to achieve.

As a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure educational courses create value for your team members, and your team members create even more value for your customers and each other.

These five action steps can help you make this happen: