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Unit 12: Creating a Service Culture

12.1 Creating a Service Culture Notes

Culture also encompasses your products and services, and the physical appearance of the
organisation’s facility, equipment, or any other aspect of the organisation with which the customer
comes into contact. Unfortunately, many companies are top-down–oriented (with upper
management at the top of their hierarchy and customers as a final element or afterthought) or
product-centered and view customers from the standpoint of what company products or services
they use (Figure 12.1). Successful organisations are customer-centered or customer-centric and
focus on individual needs (Figure 12.2).

An organisation’s service culture is made up of many facets, each of which affects the customer
and helps determine the success or failure of customer service initiatives. Too often, organisations
overpromise and under deliver because their cultural and internal systems (infrastructure) do
not have the ability to support customer service initiatives.
Figure 12.1: (Left) Typical Hierarchical Organisation (Right) Customer
Centric Organisation

Example: Suppose that management has the marketing department develop a slick
piece of literature describing all the benefits of a new product or service provided by a new
corporate partner. Then a special 800 numbers or web site is set up to handle customer responses,
but no additional staff is hired to handle the customer calls or current service providers are not
given adequate information or training to do their job. The project is likely doomed to fail
because adequate service support has not been planned and implemented.

In the past, organisations were continually making changes to their product and service lines to
try to attract and hold customers. Often this has been their primary approach to customer
satisfaction. Now, many major organisations have become more customer-centric and stress
relationships with customers. They realise that it is cheaper, and smarter, to keep current
customers rather than subscribe to a revolving door approach of continually trying to attract
new customers to replace the ones that they lost to competitors. Advertising campaigns often
reflect this new awareness as companies try to communicate that they are focused on their
customers. The following are some familiar slogans used by companies in their promotional
materials:
“Like a good neighbor” — State Farm Insurance
“When you’re here, you’re family” — Olive Garden Restaurants

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