I have been in the field of training, leadership, and organizational development for over 20 years. Through all these years, I have heard a one message (and complaint) from practitioners, consultants, authors and gurus: for cultural change to succeed, top leadership must support it. It’s amazing. This message is so consistent. And there is so much evidence to prove it!

Yet the issue persists as a key barrier to successful culture change.

Many of us enjoy doing business with people from countries, ethnicities, and backgrounds that are different from our own. This brings into our lives, and the lives of those we serve, a wonderful sense of the colorful, cultural, and amazing world in which we live and work.

This colorful combination is also loaded with opportunities to accidentally misstep or inadvertently create negative impressions. Since our definition of service is “to create value for someone else”, then service can enhanced when we are conscious of others’ backgrounds and their cultures, and the manner in which they prefer to be served.

Let me tell you a story from my own background, and how I accidentally offended the host from one of my most influential clients (this was before my time with UP! Your Service).

Over the many years of working with organizations to help them become ‘customer centered’, I have witnessed a number of successes as well as failures. By understanding why these well-intentioned initiatives fail and looking for common causes we are able to address them early in the planning process for future initiatives and thus increase the odds of success.

The six most common reasons for failure I have seen throughout my career are these:

Many organizations use waiting time and processing speed as key measures of service quality. This is fine – as long as they don’t become the only metrics that matter. An obsession with such ‘numbers’ can make you lose sight of what is really important: how your customers experience what you are doing for them rather than how efficient your systems and processes are.

At UP! Your Service, we work with clients around the world who want to create positive cultural change by building an Uplifting Service Culture. While these clients vary from global, multi-national organizations to government agencies, our experience shows that leadership is always a vital predictor of success.

We note three characteristics of successful personal change that also apply to leading cultural change in a large organization.

Do you really know your customers well enough to stand apart from your competition? Do you want to?

Many people say they know who their customers are. But an alarming number, especially in the B2B world, have only a shallow clue.

Ask yourself these questions, and then think again:

Each time you explore, agree, deliver and assure, the possibility for trust grows between you and the other party. In fact, this may be the only way human beings can build trust with one another.

1. EXPLORE: Find out what is important to the other person.
2. AGREE: Make a promise to do something on their behalf.
3. DELIVER: Do what you promised.
4. ASSURE: Check and make sure they are satisfied.

Are you building powerful partnerships where you work?

Amazon’s customer service has always been recognized and applauded as world-class. This is remarkable, especially since it is a purely online retailer. Amazon has hardly any ‘human’ interactions – often considered crucial perception points for increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty – in the value delivery chain.

Many companies try to emulate Amazon and cost-effectively provide higher levels of service through leveraging technology. But Amazon does not only ‘deliver customer service’ – they build powerful partnerships with their customers.

How do they do it?

What are the seven characteristics of one-to-one service that matches every customer value dimension? Learn how to give each customer what they want, exactly when and how they want it.

Focus groups can be a gold-mine of valuable service improvement ideas, insights and suggestions. Here are some questions and tips to help you create engaging and valuable conversations.