Since the dawning of the modern business age, technology has been accused of unfairly disrupting industries and causing the downfall of otherwise good companies. Netflix replaced Blockbuster. Tech giants Spotify, Dollar Shave Club and HomeAway are all disruptors within their industries. And, not long ago, President Trump accused Amazon of harming other retailers and taking away jobs.
While it’s true that these innovative companies use technology for disruption, they cannot be successful without a key culture driver that every business needs: customer service. And the basis of good customer service? A great company culture.
Why customer service is key
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has often said part of Amazon’s success is that it allows itself to fail when it comes to new products, processes and technologies. But there is one area in which Bezos is terrified of failing: customer service. Amazon’s vision isn’t to be the most innovative or technologically advanced company on the planet. It’s “to be earth’s most customer-centric company.”
“We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed,” Bezos once said. “We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.”
There are compelling facts that can back this up. It’s been found that businesses are losing $62 billion per year through poor customer service and that number is growing every year. It’s not because there are more businesses each year that provide poor customer service. Rather, consumers simply don’t tolerate poor service anymore. The baby-boomer generation is likely to switch brands or services due to poor service 27% of the time. Millennials, on the other hand, are willing to switch more than 60% of the time due to poor service.
It all begins with a great corporate culture
Richard Branson was once asked why most airline employees seem disgruntled. He answered, “It’s not necessarily the staff’s fault they’re disgruntled. They’re not given the tools to do the job properly. For example, if somebody wants a kosher meal and it’s not on the plane, the crew member has to explain that to the passenger, and the passenger takes it out on the crew member. If that happens day after day, you soon turn a friendly person into someone defensive and unfriendly.”
While hiring great employees is certainly a key factor in providing exceptional customer service, it’s not enough. Your corporate culture must attract and support great employees who are then given the tools to make customers happy.
We’ve taken our own advice on this at The HT Group and recently reimagined our core values to ensure they’re customer-centric. Our focus is to make lives better and our supporting values are to live with integrity, go above and beyond, and embrace the HT Way, which includes maintaining a positive, can-do attitude.
Simply creating these values is the easy part. They do you—and your customers—no good if they aren’t fully adopted and understood by every single employee throughout your organization.
“One of the very first—and most important—steps leaders can take in their efforts to create a culture that focuses on providing exceptional customer service is to help employees understand the organization’s overarching goals,” explains Bruce Jones, Senior Programming Director, Disney Institute. “When employees see clearly how their efforts contribute to the organization’s goals, they are better able to not only meet but to exceed customers’ expectations.”
So, when it comes to the key to success for all the technology companies like Amazon, nothing beats good, old-fashioned customer service provided by happy employees. Getting distracted by shiny metal objects while overlooking the people that make your business great will disrupt nothing but your plans to dominate your industry.
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