(Cont'd)

Employee cynicism is the direct product of an organization’s visible preoccupation with self-interest above all else—a purely internal focus. The focus in flashpoint businesses is directed outward, toward the interests of customers and the community at large. This shift in cultural focus changes the way the business operates at all levels.

The reality in most business settings is that employees are de-motivated because they can’t deliver delight. The existing policies and procedures make it impossible. Instead of “fixing” their employees, flashpoint business set out to build a culture that unblocks them. Workers are encouraged to identify operational obstacles to customer delight, and participate in finding ways around them.

Third Blunder: using customer feedback to uncover what’s wrong.

Businesses often use surveys and other feedback mechanisms to get to the causes of customer problems and complaints. Employees come to dread these measurement and data-gathering efforts, since they so often lead to what feels like witch-hunts for employee scapegoats, formal exercises in finger-pointing and the assigning of blame. Flashpoint businesses use customer feedback very differently. In these organizations the object is to uncover everything that’s going right. Managers are forever on the lookout for "hero stories" - examples of employees going the extra mile to deliver delight. Such feedback becomes the basis for ongoing recognition and celebration. Employees see themselves as winners on a winning team, because in their workplace there’s always some new "win" being celebrated.

Fourth Blunder: reserving top recognition for splashy recoveries.

It happens all the time: something goes terribly wrong in a customer order or transaction, and a dedicated employee goes to tremendous lengths to make things right. The delighted customer brings this employee’s wonderful recovery to management’s attention, and the employee receives special recognition for his or her efforts. This is a blunder?

It is when such recoveries are the primary—if not the only—catalysts for employee recognition. In such a culture, foul-ups become almost a good thing from the workers’ point of view. By creating opportunities for splashy recoveries, foul-ups represent the only chance employees have to feel appreciated on the job. Attempts to correct operational problems won’t win much support if employees see these problems as their only opportunity to shine.

Flashpoint businesses celebrate splashy recoveries, of course—but they’re also careful to uncover and celebrate employee efforts to delight customers where no mistakes or problems were involved. This makes it easier to get workers participating in efforts to permanently eliminate the sources of problems at the systems level.

Fifth Blunder: competing on price.

It’s one of the most common (and most costly) mistakes in business. Price becomes the deciding factor in purchasing decisions only when everything else is equal—and everything else is almost never equal. Businesses compete on the perception of value, and this includes more than price. It’s shaped by the total customer experience—and aspects such as “helpfulness,” “friendliness,” and “the personal touch” often give the competitive advantage to businesses that actually charge slightly more for their basic goods and services.

Those businesses that deliver a superior total experience from the inside out (that is, as a product of a strongly customer-focused culture) are typically those that enjoy a long-term competitive advantage—along with virtual immunity from the kinds of headaches that plague everybody else.

Customer-focus consultant Paul Levesque’s latest book is Customer Service from the Inside Out Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, 2006).

About The Author : Paul Levesque is available for speaking engagements through www.keynoteresource.com 1-800-420-4155 Paul Levesque has more than 20 years' experience as an international customer-service consultant. He has helped hundreds of corporate and small business clients become more customer-focused.