10 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A CUSTOMER-FOCUSED CULTURE 

I 

Vision - looking beyond this quarter's earnings to where and what the company ultimately wants to be in relation to its stakeholders and its environment.

II 

Commitment - beginning at the very top of the organization and flowing all the way to line-level hourly employees, a determination to provide a superior experience for every customer every time -- proven by action (walk the walk), not talk.

III 

Objectivity - a clear view of the company, its vision, and its culture from an unbiased vantage point free of private agendas.

IV 

Planning - a strategic blueprint to guide the construction of a customer-focused culture...a required process to maintain alignment with the vision over time.

V 

Discipline - methodical implementation and execution of tactics to put the strategic plan into action, with built-in regular checkpoints to measure results, gauge progress, and make tactical adjustments.

VI 

Buy-in - understanding, internalization, and active support from all ranks of the organization, from hourly workers to the board of directors -- with particular emphasis on middle management (the people responsible for tactical execution).

VII 

Consistency - maintaining strategic integrity and applying the customer service initiative evenly -- in all support materials, in all departments, in all strata of the company.

VIII 

Continuity - systematic conceptual links which bind the initiative together over time, independent of personalities or level of resource support.

IX 

Patience - realistic expectations of cultural dynamics and appreciation for the time involved in influencing the shape of a culture (it can't done by ordering it so).

X 

Resources - time, money, and people required to make the customer-focused culture happen, the amount of each being a function of how fast management wants it to happen.

(This item appeared as a sidebar in the July 1996 issue.)

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