Getting new customers, keeping those customers, and making more money are the goals you have for your business, right?
Then let me share one of the most crucial factors into setting up that equation – DEFINE your ideal desired company culture!
If I could shout this from the mountain tops, I absolutely would. All of the clients I work with online and in person have struggled with this concept initially. They believe that they need to amp up their sales force or train their front line staff better. These ideas certainly come into play, but only after we get the critical step of the culture solidified first. When I explain that customers will absolutely do business and spend more money with the companies that have a solid foundation, know who they are, how they want to do business, how they want customers to be treated, how they want their staff to work together internally, they start to pay attention. Here is where you want to take notes…
1. Companies with clearly defined cultures have taken the guesswork out of their daily lives. These companies know what their mission statement is, what their core values are, and how they want their customers to think of them.
2. Companies with clearly defined cultures have a high level of staff engagement. Companies with high staff engagement have low turnover rates, high staff morale, staff feels more empowered, and the staff make decisions that benefit both the company and the customers.
3. Companies with clearly defined cultures do everything they can to protect the culture they strive to create. They protect it like a Mama Bear protecting her cubs. Anything or anyone threatening that culture is diverted into a different forest. Meaning, if there are internal issues and leadership stands and supports the ideal culture, they will make the difficult decision of “freeing up the future” of those who do not embrace the ideals and are slowly but surely destroying morale.
So, how do you define your culture? Simple. Sit down with your leadership team, managers, or whomever you see as a leader in your company. Limit the group to 10 to eliminate the “Too Many Indian Chiefs” phenomena.
You then need to brainstorm and identify that in your wildest dreams of the best possible world where there are plenty of customers, plenty of business, staff is performing at optimum levels, everything is functioning as well as it could possibly be…. what does it look like, feel like, sound like, how are staff interacting with clients and each other? What’s being said? What is the morale like? It doesn’t matter how things are currently operating now, this is all about setting goals and aiming high.
The key here is to have the conversation. Define what you have in mind, document it, rework it until it feels right. Then be sure to SHARE it with your entire organization. If you keep it in your head, you’ll just be lucky if someone else is headed in the same direction as you. Leave nothing to chance. Your business success depends on it.
Once you’ve done this exercise, you’ll know that everyone knows what they are working toward. Everyone will be on the same page. There will be consistency across your company. Getting new customers is much easier when everyone is sending the same message and delivering a consistent customer experience. When customers have better customer experiences on a consistent basis, they turn into loyal customers.