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Creating a client-first culture on your team
Date: 2011-07-20
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Here's a question for you: Do companies exist to serve customers or customers exist to serve companies?
The answer seems obvious - of course companies are there to serve customers. Given that universal view, it's remarkable how often it doesn't feel that way as customers.
And sometimes that's even the case for investors working with financial advisors.
Where big companies go wrong
A recent article on the Harvard Business Review blog tackled the question of why we're so often antagonized when dealing with employees of large companies, where we're made to feel like companies are doing us a favour by taking our money. Whether dealing with airlines, utilities, phone companies or banks, we've all had the experience of being irritated by the blind application of what seem to be arbitrary rules, a process that often makes us regret we ever began working with that firm.
The people who run these companies clearly don't come to work with the goal of frustrating their customers - and yet that's all too often what happens. As just one example, this article pointed to the uproar when US troops returning from Afghanistan posted a YouTube video when Delta check-in staff charged them $200 each to check bags containing their weapons.
There are at least two reasons for this disconnect between the customer experience that large companies set out to deliver and what actually happens.
Some industries such as telecom take a transactional approach. In the interests of maximum profitability, they accept that a certain number of customers will walk; their goal is customer satisfaction only so long as it doesn't affect the bottom line. In those cases, the only way that the customer experience will improve is if more customers walked and mediocre service cost the company more money as a result.
In other cases, the management of large companies establish hard and fast rules to protect their bottom line and then fail to give front line employees the discretion to make exceptions where these rules don't make sense. The Delta imbroglio is a classic example of this.
So we can perhaps understand why very large organizations struggle with delivering on their commitment to customer satisfaction and to creating a culture which is customer driven.
What's more puzzling is why small and mid-size companies have difficulty communicating that customers are valued, including a substantial number of financial advisors.
Demonstrating an "above and beyond" mindset
There are two things you have to do to ensure your clients truly feel valued.
First, you need to lead by example in creating an "extra mile" mindset and culture.
And then you have to empower your staff to spend the time and money on the little things that make all the difference.
There are lots of ways to demonstrate that above and beyond mindset:
- Take problems seriously.
When there's an administrative problem of any sort, make it your first call to head office every morning until that problem is resolved - and right after that call, send your client an email or call them to keep them abreast of what's happening.
- Return calls and emails promptly.
Have a hard and fast policy on returning every call and email within three hours, even it if means you have to stay late to make that happen.
- Look for the unexpected things that surprise clients.
A couple of summers back, one mid- sized firm hired two high school students to wait in their parking lot and offer to wash the cars of any clients in for meetings
During a visit to Scotland, another advisor stopped by St. Andrews, considered the home of golf, and bought a suitcase full of golf ball sleeves. At the end of meetings, he gives them to clients, saying he hopes that the balls will improve their game.
When he's got a call scheduled with clients in their 60s and 70s, one advisor offers to send his son to their home to set up Skype, so that they can do the meeting online. His son stays for the call and then sets Skype up for the clients to call their kids and grandkids.
- Don't forget the small personal touches.
Each morning, one advisor gives his receptionist a list of clients with appointments so she can greet them by name.
Another writes three daily notes to clients who he spoke to the day before, thanking them for the chance to work together.
Still another advisor has an assistant who records every client's favourite cookie and ensures she has them on hand when they come in for meetings.
And one advisor starts every day by calling any older client celebrating a birthday with best wishes, saying "Just wanted to be among the first to wish you happy birthday."
Even though these do lose some of their impact with repetition, as they no longer "surprise" clients, they still set the right tone with clients and also with the rest of his team.
Empowering staff to act
Once you've modeled the example, you need to ensure your staff understand that letting clients know they've valued is their job as well.
One advisor begins his weekly meetings by talking about something from the previous week that was an example of going the extra mile. Sometime he'll be able to share a comment from a client, other times the examples are provided by his staff. But by leading with this, he sets clear expectations for his team.
The final piece of the puzzle is to give clients the mandate within sensible parameters to spend time and money to go the extra mile. If the people working for you have to ask permission for little things, it undermines their sense of ownership and responsibility. No one on your team should ever have to ask permission to send an envelope by courier or to send clients flowers for an appropriate occasion.
Remember, caring about clients is only the starting point - you have to show you care. And by looking for ways to do this and empowering your staff, you can create a client-first culture that will ensure clients understand they're valued.
If you're interested, here's the article from the HBR blog that discusses the Delta airlines incident:
Here's a question for you: Do companies exist to serve customers or customers exist to serve companies?
The answer seems obvious; of course companies are there to serve customers. Given that universal view, it's remarkable how often it doesn't feel that way as customers.
And sometimes that's even the case for investors working with financial advisors.
Where big companies go wrong
A recent article on the Harvard Business Review blog tackled the question of why we're so often antagonized when dealing with employees of large companies, where we're made to feel like companies are doing us a favour by taking our money. Whether dealing with airlines, utilities, phone companies or banks, we've all had the experience of being irritated by the blind application of what seem to be arbitrary rules; a process that often makes us regret we ever began working with that firm.
The people who run these companies clearly don't come to work with the goal of frustrating their customers, and yet, that's all too often what happens. As just one example, this article pointed to the uproar when US troops returning from Afghanistan posted a YouTube video when Delta check-in staff charged them $200 each to check bags containing their weapons.
There are at least two reasons for this disconnect between the customer experience that large companies set out to deliver and what actually happens.
Some industries such as telecom take a transactional approach. In the interests of maximum profitability, they accept that a certain number of customers will walk; their goal is customer satisfaction only so long as it doesn't affect the bottom line. In those cases, the only way that the customer experience will improve is if more customers walked, and mediocre service cost the company more money as a result.
In other cases, the management of large companies established hard and fast rules to protect their bottom line, and then fail to give front line employees the discretion to make exceptions where these rules don't make sense. The Delta imbroglio is a classic example of this.
So we can perhaps understand why very large organizations struggle with delivering on their commitment to customer satisfaction and to creating a culture which is customer driven.
What's more puzzling is why small and mid-size companies have difficulty communicating that customers are valued, including a substantial number of financial advisors.
Demonstrating an "above and beyond" mindset
There are two things you have to do to ensure your clients truly feel valued.
First, you need to lead by example in creating an "extra mile" mindset and culture.
And then you have to empower your staff to spend the time and money on the little things that make all the difference.
There are lots of ways to demonstrate that above and beyond mindset:
- Take problems seriously.
When there's an administrative problem of any sort, make it your first call to head office every morning until that problem is resolved, and right after that call, send your client an email or call them to keep them abreast of what's happening.
- Return calls and emails promptly.
Have a hard and fast policy on returning every call and email within three hours, even it if means you have to stay late to make that happen.
- Look for the unexpected things that surprise clients.
A couple of summers back, one mid- sized firm hired two high school students to wait in their parking lot and offer to wash the cars of any clients in for meetings
During a visit to Scotland, another advisor stopped by St. Andrews, considered the home of golf, and bought a suitcase full of golf ball sleeves. At the end of meetings, he gives them to clients, saying he hopes that the balls will improve their game.
When he's got a call scheduled with clients in their 60s and 70s, one advisor offers to send his son to their home to set up Skype, so that they can do the meeting online. His son stays for the call, and then sets Skype up for the clients to call their kids and grandkids.
- Don't forget the small personal touches.
Each morning, one advisor gives his receptionist a list of clients with appointments so she can greet them by name.
Another writes three daily notes to clients who he spoke to the day before, thanking them for the chance to work together.
Still another advisor has an assistant who records every client's favourite cookie and ensures she has them on hand when they come in for meetings.
And one advisor starts every day by calling any older client celebrating a birthday with best wishes, saying "Just wanted to be among the first to wish you happy birthday."
Even though these do lose impact with repetition, they still set the right tone with clients and also with the rest of his team.
Empowering clients to act
Once you've modeled the example, you need to ensure your staff understands that letting clients know they've valued is their job as well.
One advisor begins his weekly meetings by talking about something from the previous week that was an example of going the extra mile. Sometimes he'll be able to share a comment from a client, other times the examples are provided by his staff. But by leading with this, he sets clear expectations for his team.
The final piece of the puzzle is to give clients the mandate within sensible parameters to spend time and money to go the extra mile. If the people working for you have to ask permission for little things, it undermines their sense of ownership and responsibility. No one on your team should ever have to ask permission to send an envelope by courier or to send clients flowers for an appropriate occasion.
Remember, caring about clients is only the starting point; you have to show you care. And by looking for ways to do this and empowering your staff, you can create a client-first culture that will ensure clients understand they're valued.
If you're interested, here's the article from the HBR blog that discusses the Delta airlines incident: