How To Use Culture As Competitive Advantage

Culture can be a great source of competitive advantage. That’s because ‘culture’ is ’the way we do things around here’. The challenge for any business is to ensure that the ‘way we do things’ is

• a) the stuff that customers want, and
• b) the stuff that they tell others about!

Here’s a recent article I wrote for the great management website Bnet which puts forward 5 questions to get you thinking about and shaping your culture.  It highlights some simple ideas to start ensuring that your culture really works to your advantage, provided of course, you actually ‘do something’!

Hear How To Deliver Happiness!

I probably go on about Zappos too much, but I just think they’re a brilliant example of a totally customer focused business! The CEO, Tony Hsieh is featured in the Duct Tape Marketing podcast this week – it’s well worth a listen (after you’ve listened to mine of course!).

Tony Hsieh’s new book ‘Delivering Happiness’ is due out in the UK very soon – have pre – orderered it and will let you know what I think in future blogs!

The Future Of Customer Service On Airplanes?

Is this the future of customer service on airplanes?

Some great examples of what Virgin America are trying:

It’s also well worth looking at this article by Jan Alexander on BNet (which is a website I also regularly contribute to!) where she highlights some of the great things that Virgin America are doing to be ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’.

They are clearly ‘raising the bar’ and there are some great lessons for all of us.

The key one for me is that it’s about service (no surprise there Andy!) and crucially building a culture that recruits, promotes and rewards those that want to deliver that service!

What’s Your Personality? That’s the Big Question!

Just finished watching an excellent programme on BBC1 about ‘personality’. The Big Personality Test was part of the fabulous Child Of Our Time series which is ‘tracking’ a bunch of kids as they grow up.

The Big Personality Test looks at five traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. It was fascinating to see how these unfolded in both the adults and the kids. There was a lot of learning there for businesses, particularly about what shapes, influences adn reinforces ‘culture’ - it’s well worth a look . I know it’s not about ‘putting people in boxes’, but I thought they simplified a complex issue very well and I’m sure you’ll recognise a few home truths about you and your business!

It’s quite clear that the better we understand what makes the people around us ‘tick’ and of course vice versa then the better chance of building stronger and effective relationships.

For the record, I came out high in Openness,  Agreeableness and Extroversion, but low in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism (Actually, the report did say that there is evidence that a high score in these latter two can result in a powerful work ethic and a will to succeed, so that’s me done!)

Seriously, you can do the Test here – it’s well worth 20 minutes of your time. Even better, get your team to do it and then book out half an hour to discuss the implications.

Podcast 5: Creating A Customer Culture – An Interview With Paul Meehan, Director Of Customer Experience At Axa Insurance

You’ll love this one! It’s an interview with friend and client, Paul Meehan, Director Of Customer Experience at Axa Insurance.

Paul has an amazing amount of experience in building and selling a very successful insurance broking business and then moving to the huge organisation that is Axa Insurance.

You’ll hear Paul’s insightful ideas, views and practical experiences about creating excellent customer experiences that are relevant whether you are the CEO of a large multi-national, an entrepreneur looking to grow and develop a business, or a team leader responsible for the customer experience in your organisation. 

Podcast #5contains:

• Creating a customer focussed culture – Steps to help you develop a real customer focus in your business.
• The role of the leader – Paul’s practical ideas to help make things work
• Involve and engage your people – How to ‘tap in’ to the knowledge and experience of your ‘front line’ staff
• Plus other practical stuff to stimulate thoughts and actions  

You can listen to it here: 
 

Click here to download Podcast

You can also download it to your ipod by clicking here or on the itunes icon at the top of the website

Related links for this podcast:

The books Paul recommends in the interview:

Who Says Elephants can’t Dance? How I turned around IBM – Louis Gerstner

Books by Jack Welsh

Thinking in 3D by Andy Hanselman ( I know Paul’s read that one too!) 

Remember, you can subscribe all future Compete Or Get Beat podcasts on iTunes - simply click here to do that

And finally, don’t forget to if you do go to iTunes, please leave them a rating and a comment on what you thought!

Zapp!!! Here’s More On Zappos!

 

“We interview people for culture fit. We want people who are passionate about what Zappos is about–service. I don’t care if they’re passionate about shoes.”

Tony Hseih, Chief Executive, Zappos

I blogged a bit about Zappos last month. They are the incredibly successful online shoe and clothes retailer in the US who have an amazing reputation for customer service. There are a lot of people over here in the UK who are not perhaps as familiar with them as all their ‘raving fans’ in the United States.

Their Chief Executive  Tony Hseih puts it down to their culture – they strive to ‘deliver happiness’ and do some amazing things to create and reinforce this culture. He encourages his call centre staff  ‘to be themeselves’ and says “The best way to have an open-door policy is not to have a door in the first place”. He doesn’t have an office – his workspace is out there ‘just like everyone else’s!

Started in 1999, this is not a little business – turnover is over $1 Billion! They are a great example of a small business that’s grown massively and maintained its culture – something that so  many fail to do.

A fundamental basis for maintaining their amazing culture are their ‘core values’ – You can read and watch here about their core values.

Here’s an article about them from Inc. magazine that gives a bit of an insight into their approach. Equally, it’s well worth simply exploring their websites to get a real ‘feel’ for what they’re about – Zappos.com and Zappos Blogs

Getting Ahead In Gateshead!

Great news for a great client of mine! Gateshead College is one of the ‘Best Places To Work’ and has won a special award in The Sunday Times Best Places To Work. The Best For Innovation In Employment Practice award was won in addition to being 15th overall in the list.

They are a great team to work with and thoroughly deserve their award. As the report on the College shows, when it comes to ‘employee engagement’, it’s about taking a procative approach to getting individuals to contribute (regardless of their ‘rank’ or ‘position’) and it’s about recognising individuals’ contributions either publically like the Staff Oscars, which are a great event to be involved in, or the personal things like ‘birthday’ cards, and ‘thank you’ notes.

I experienced it myself last year at the Annual Staff Conference that I’d been involved in, resulted in me being presented in front of 450 staff with my very own ‘stag horns’ for my pre -wedding celebrations that were taking place on Tyneside that night!!!

Well done to everyone involved -  Not just one of the best places to work, but one of the best places to work with!

Zappos Offer Employees A Bonus ‘To Quit’!

Just finished reading Seth Godin’s latest book ‘Lynchpin’  (well, well worth a read as ever!). He highlighted a great example of a business that works extremely hard to get  (and retain) the right people that have bought in to their vision and their ‘way of doing things’ (culture).

Zappos, the incredibly successful e-tailer which has a recognized ‘obsession’ with customer service offers it’s ‘new starts’ $2,000 to quit! After an intensive four week ‘induction process’ which introduces the new employees to the company’s ‘vision’, culture and processes, each employee is made ‘The Offer’. They are told “If you quit now, we’ll pay you your wages for the past four weeks plus a $2,000 ‘bonus’”. Apparently, less than 3% typically take up the offer!

Being a ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’ business is often centred very much around all the people who work in it. They have to ‘own” what your trying to do and recognise how they can contribute to it. 3D businesses do all they can to get that ‘ownership’. The Zappos ‘Offer’ is a very powerful way of getting ‘buy in’ to what you’re trying to achieve.

It means the ones that stay WANT to be there!

Free ebook – (Re)Thinking in 3D…..

I’ve written a new book! It’s all about Thinking in 3D – That means creating a business that’s 

‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different‘! 

Basically, it’s a short set of ’rants’, raves and ideas aimed at engaging, stimulating and challenging you. 

If you enjoy the blog, I’d like to think that you’ll enjoy this too. The main reason being that there will be a few bits and bobs you’ve read before here on the site – see it as ‘going back to the gym’ – you still need to work those muscles!

I’ve called it:

(re)thinking in ‘3D‘….. and the best bit is it’s FREE!

 

If you like it please send it on to others….. and let me know what you think about it too please!

You can

download it here!

Hope You Have a ’Delightful’ Christmas!

Recruiting ‘Customer Delight’ ers

Came across this today. It’s a design business in Lynwood, Washington looking for a graphic designer. Part of the application process involves submitting, as well as your cv and examples of work, an example of when you’ve ‘delighted’ a customer, how you did it and what the reaction was from that customer.

It’s simple stuff, but I think it does a number of significant things in the recruitment process:

1) It gets beyond just the ‘technical’ stuff about design and ‘doing the job’

2) It shows the prospective employee what’s important around here – you’re ‘culture’

and

3) It reinforces that to existing clients and existing employees.

What do you look for in your prospective employees? Crucially, how do you let them know that’s what you’re looking for?

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