Now that travelers can use AI tools like ChatGPT as pocket travel assistants and technological features have become a staple across the hospitality industry, personal customer service has become a stronger differentiator than ever.
Buzzwords like "customer journey", "experience", and "personalized" are present in the marketing materials of many businesses, but are they also understood, lived, and supported by management and staff?
EHL has analyzed hundreds of companies outside the hospitality sector over the last few years. We found that service is often presented as a function or task that is fulfilled between the front-end staff and the customer. This narrow approach focuses solely on service delivery.
But what if we see customer service as a way to reframe a business's culture?
What is Customer Service Culture?
Customer service culture refers to a business culture that is oriented toward the end customer in all of its activities and at every level. A company with a customer service culture focuses its mission and processes on serving the customer first and foremost. The goal is to provide the customer with the best experience, and each employee’s duties are aligned with that goal, from front-end staff to upper management.
The Importance of a Strong Customer Service Culture
Sure, a lot of people like it when they can book a table online or check in without needing to pass a reception, but don't confuse digitalization for the customer's sake with technology that makes your life easier but not theirs.
And that's where a strong customer service culture makes the difference: it always puts the customer first, even if that means doing some things more slowly.
In a customer service culture, customer service becomes a mindset, not just a deliverable. It influences how managers develop strategies, staff approach customers, and everyone tackles problems.
In that sense, having an established customer service culture makes it easier to uphold good customer service.
It Boosts Your Bottom Line
According to Forrester, "customer-obsessed organizations report 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer retention than non-customer-obsessed organizations".
It Supports Internal Alignment
A strong customer service culture promotes alignment between different departments and teams, as everyone shares the same customer service vision and knows what the number one priority is: customer satisfaction.
It Strengthens Your Brand Reputation
It makes sense that delivering good customer service improves the perception someone has of your brand, but it goes beyond that. Qualtrics research found that customers who think a company's customer service is "good" are 38% more likely to recommend that company to others.
It Increases Customer and Employee Loyalty
Happy customers don't complain, and when your whole business puts the customer first, they're much more likely to feel satisfied and come back. According to Salesforce, 91% of customers say they're more likely to buy from a brand again if they've had a positive customer service experience with that brand. A HubSpot study found that number to be as high as 93%.
With fewer complaints to deal with, your staff has more time to focus on creating positive experiences, making their job more pleasant and them more likely to stay on board. As such, a service-focused culture improves employee retention alongside customer retention.
It Facilitates Improvement
A customer service culture is one that actively listens to the customers. It takes in and assesses customer feedback and requests to optimize processes and innovate. There really is no better way to improve your service.
Customer Service Culture Examples
According to Outside In authors Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine, companies that lead in customer experience and truly "put customers at the center of their businesses" benefit tremendously.
They looked at a period of five years during which the S&P 500 was flat and noticed that businesses with a customer service culture grew their stock portfolio by 22%.
But what does it mean, exactly, to have a customer-centric approach? Let's have a look at some examples.
The Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton is known for treating its guests like royalty and allowing its employees to use a dedicated amount to resolve any issues on the spot.
Staff are also encouraged to go well beyond delivering the services you might expect from a high-end hotel. During a family holiday, a boy left his favorite stuffed animal at a Ritz-Carlton. When his parents called the hotel to ask the staff about Joshie the Giraffe, not only did they find and send Joshie back, they also included photos of Joshie lounging by the pool, having a spa treatment, and doing other fun things during his "extended stay".
A few years later, the family returned to the same Ritz-Carlton and, during a casual conversation, mentioned how Joshie had gotten truly missing on another trip. The staff still remembered Joshie and, not long after, delivered a new stuffed giraffe to the family's room. It came with a note explaining how this was Jeffie, a long-lost cousin of Joshie's who'd be happy to stay with the son while Joshie was off galavanting around the world.
Good customer service would have simply sent Joshie back to his family. It's the customer service culture that inspired Ritz-Carlton employees to turn two stressful experiences into joyful memories.
Marriott
Marriott is known for its culture of customer service. The hotel chain trains its staff to address issues in real time and uses data-driven personalization to provide a memorable experience, as well as increase guest retention.
Examples of this include "remembering" guests' anniversaries and room preferences.
Hilton
Just like Marriott, Hilton invests extensively in its employees' customer service training. Staff members are empowered to make quick decisions to respond to the needs of guests as well as customer complaints, and the chain's robust loyalty program offers various personalized benefits and exclusive experiences.
It's a good customer service culture example that extends across different channels.
Zappos
Online shopping portal Zappos became a household name by providing a great online shopping experience paired with excellent customer service. It has a no-questions-asked return policy and trains its employees to deliver beyond the customer's expectations.
Zappos's customer service culture is so strong that its employees are known as Zapponians, and whoever fails to adopt their customer-centric approach is offered a sum to leave the company.
How to Create a Customer Service Culture
Shifting a company's culture isn't easy. To get the entire company on board, the shift needs to be defined as a strategic objective, clearly communicated, and consistently implemented. A one-off training or memo is not going to change a culture.
Here are the steps that will.
Get Clear on Your Customer Service Culture Definition
To get everyone in your company to adopt the same culture, it needs to be clear what that culture entails. It's not enough to say you always put the customer front and center.
Define what it means to work as part of a customer service culture for your specific company. Include it in the company vision, mission statement, values, communications, and documented processes.
Talk to employees to ensure that they understand what you're all working toward and provide concrete examples.
Decide on Goals and Tracking Methods
Measuring success in the culture shift will require the notion of KPIs to be redefined and measured beyond hard facts to include more subjective, qualitative elements such as attitude and mindset.
You can't just look at performance numbers anymore. You need to talk to employees, other managers, and customers to get an idea of whether your customer service culture is solidly integrated.
While tracking customer satisfaction doesn't directly tell you whether your staff has adopted a customer-centric mindset, it can be a good indicator. Especially analyzing customer feedback and reviews is a good way to learn how your staff approaches customers and how customers appreciate (or not) that approach.
Provide Extensive Customer Service Training
Train employees in your unique service culture from the moment they're onboarded. Show them how they can implement a customer-focused approach by providing concrete examples and allowing them to practice through role play.
Just like establishing a company culture isn't a set-it-and-forget-it type of thing, employees should receive continuous training to keep culture guidelines top of mind and help them respond to new challenges (for example, a guest who got wrong information about your offer from an AI tool).
It's also important that all employees receive culture training. That includes management. Furthermore, it'll be hard to implement a customer service culture if management doesn't practice what it preaches. After all, why would your staff worry about the customer first when you are clearly more focused on boosting efficiency at all costs?
Empower and Encourage Employees to Become Culture Adopters
Let employees know the wins they've gotten for the company by adopting a customer-first mindset. You could use memos, company newsletters, or other meetings to share instances in which:
- Customers raved about your exceptional service online.
- Guests were exceptionally happy with how you handled something.
- Positive PR you got thanks to your customer service culture.
Don't be afraid to applaud specific employees. A study by Awardco showed that employees are more likely to stay loyal to a company and be more engaged with it when they feel they receive proper recognition.
But make sure not to just focus on the believers. It's easy for an "us vs them" dynamic to evolve when part of the staff doesn't adapt as easily. To include them and give them a chance to shift their approach, you could develop mixed teams of internal ambassadors (those with the highest buy-in) and outside challengers to stimulate debate and improvement of current practices.
The same goes for management. Ideally, leadership will already believe in a customer-first approach, but if that's not the case, you can back your case with research data, performance data, and customer stories.
Hire and Fire for Culture
Shifting a culture is one of the hardest things to do, but it becomes a lot easier with the right people. Keep your desired culture in mind throughout your hiring practices and ensure that your culture is clear to possible applicants. Describe it in job ads, mention it on your website, and - most of all - visibly implement it across departments.
Skills are easier to teach than mindset, so perform thorough interviews and look for people who
- Are open to criticism and feedback.
- Have demonstrated flexibility and a customer-oriented attitude in the past.
- Seem to share your company's values.
- Possess strong emotional intelligence.
Likewise, you don't want to keep people on who are unable to fit into your culture. If multiple attempts to get them on board result in little to no progress, it's best to let them go. Even if they're otherwise good employees, it won't be hard for their attitude to affect others and undo the work you've done to build your customer service culture.
Plan for Maintenance
Building and maintaining a culture is an ongoing process. Changes in the industry, management, budget, or business goals are just a few of the things that can shift people's focus away from the customer onto more company-centered objectives.
That's why it's so important to keep training for culture and include it in onboarding, feedback, and evaluation processes.
Customer Service Culture as Branding Tool
Remember Joshie, the stuffed giraffe that was left behind at a Ritz-Carlton? While the staff couldn't know that the father would write an article about their kindness, the story generated more than 12,000 Facebook likes, over 4,600 tweets, and more than 3,500 Facebook shares on top of other social media features. It was shared in various countries, included in at least three books, and retold in many keynote speeches.
When exceptional customer service is truly at the core of your company culture, it becomes part of your brand and a strong marketing asset as such.
Cautionary note: Don't start marketing yourself as a customer-focused business until you truly are one. Overpromising and underdelivering can hurt your brand tremendously. It's better to wait until your customers start telling you and the world how much they appreciate their service.
Excellent Customer Service Culture Serves All
Customer-centricity lies at the heart of hospitality, but that's difficult to forget when the market changes, costs need to be cut, or revenue chasing drowns out other priorities. Adopting and nurturing a customer service culture, however, positively impacts a company's bottom line. It improves satisfaction and loyalty on both the customer and the employee side while providing you with a valuable brand asset you can wield in your marketing.
But it's not easy to truly put the customer first in all you do, and it takes time to shift mindsets and get everyone on board. Not many companies are up for the challenge, but those who are clearly reap the benefits. Will you?
