June 30, 2015
By Maria Minsker, contributing writer

Great Customer Experience Starts with the Right Corporate Culture

DO: SPEND TIME IN EMPLOYEES' SHOES

"You don't know what employees have to deal with until you walk a mile in their shoes," Bell says. Corporate leaders who want a true understanding of their employees' tasks and processes should get out on the front lines, but again, the key here is consistency. Spending time on the sales floor or accompanying service technicians to sites is essential, and observing is often not enough. Leaders should man the phones at a retail call center, or stand behind the check-in desk at a hotel and interact with customers. Only then, Bell says, will they have a realistic grasp on daily operations and any particularly "sticky" aspects of dealings between customers and company.

All Zappos employees, for example, are required to work at the call center before they climb the corporate ladder. "They pay their dues and work their way up with an insider's perspective of how the call center operates. They know what works for employees, and what doesn't," Arussy says. That "insider" knowledge, he adds, makes for better-informed leaders who value the work that employees do because they've done it themselves.

DON'T: JUST MOTIVATE WITH MONEY

Monetary rewards for employees can be tricky territory. On the one hand, tying employee salaries to customer satisfaction ratings makes sense—if customer satisfaction is worth only 5 percent of take-home pay, employees won't care as much as they would if it were worth, say, 15 percent of their pay, Bell points out. When customer satisfaction is tied to salary, employees are more likely to seek out training and other HR resources that might improve the experience of the customer.

On the other hand, however, high customer satisfaction scores shouldn't be solely the result of financial incentive. Paying a solid salary that's proportional to the work that's required is crucial for making workers feel valued and valuable, but bribery is a no-no, Stern says. The desire to delight customers should permeate the company culture and should be instilled in every employee. Bonuses or other monetary incentives can be distracting and quickly create a competitive, high-pressure environment at work, he says. One way to motivate the workforce without a financial incentive is to emphasize "how heavily the company relies on front-line staff," according to Stern. Hyken agrees: "It's important to take time to celebrate employees and the hard work they do. Recognize outstanding employees for their efforts on a company-wide scale, be it through a congratulatory email or at a corporate event."

Some companies oppose the concept of bribery so vehemently that they take steps to weed out employees who are motivated by money in the early stages of the on-boarding process. Zappos, for example, spends weeks training its new hires in an intensive yet rewarding program. They're taught the ins and outs of the company, but are also welcomed warmly, with jungle-themed cubicle decorations and a party atmosphere. At the end of the process, they're offered $2,000 to walk away. Zappos is transparent about the on-boarding process. "They put in a great deal of time and effort exposing workers to the fun, employee- and customer-centric culture of the company. But, if the new hires don't think the environment is for them, or they don't think they can deliver what is expected of them, the company is happy to pay them to leave," Arussy says. "Culture should come first and money second," he adds.

DO: MEASURE EFFECTIVENESS WITH THE RIGHT METRICS

Because corporate culture is closely linked to customer experience, using customer satisfaction as one of the metrics for measuring employee effectiveness is critical. Too often, call center workers are evaluated on the number of calls they take per day, or how quickly calls are completed; sales associates are graded solely on how many sales they close.

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