You’re Values Are Too Important to be another C-Suite Buzzword
Try to think back to your first job. When you talk about this job to others, do you normally describe it as something you can’t believe you did? Maybe the pay was low, the hours were long and the benefits were poor… or were they?
You first job likely played a much bigger role in your upcoming years than you remember. These are the places where we learned our core business soft skills and made some of our most cringe worthy mistakes, Most of us have those embarrassing stories about our first time we hit → reply all. However, I’d bet that one mistake taught you more in five minutes that countless email threads did last week.
Personally, my “big” entry mistake was documenting my ENTIRE journey around my first consulting job a personal comedy blog were I spent my evenings anonymously documenting the days events and laughing about how I was still trying to understand words like EBITDA. When my boss offered me my first promotion, he causally stated at the end of the conversation, “You’ll be exposed to more confidential information, so I want to be sure you understand you cant document that on your little blog.” Employees had been circulating it and reading it nightly for months.
Two words. Lesson, learned.
Recently I was struck by a comment from Chicago business owner Kathleen Wood. She remarked, “We want to teach people (employees) about what our customer experience philosophy looks like…We are honored to know that we could be part of ‘making their first job their right job.’
Let’s talk on a bigger scale. Often for entry level jobs, employers are looking for young affordable talent fresh out of college, but also expecting these employees to come equipped with their own business ethics starter pack.
Picture your young ambitious wide-eyed employee’s first day on the job. They are staring at the walls covered with big posters displaying your company’s CORE values. They think, “Oh gosh! Better memorize these!”. Grow Revenue, Be Transparent, Be Innovative …
Some companies are starting to understand that taking the time to ensure their employees have a solid understanding of the desired brand customer experience will not only result in happier customers, but ultimately, more satisfied and more PASSIONATE longer-term employees. This is a critical element to creating a great company culture.
Here in the south, Chick-fil-A comes up in deck after deck as a leading example in this area. It would be a rare day where you pull up to a store and experience a negative attitude or have a poor experience unless, of course, you have a craving for their chicken on a Sunday. This is because, from Day 1, ALL employee’s at Chick-fil-A are working toward the common goal of “having a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”
The mentality of standing behind your customer experience is important even if an employee’s role doesn’t involve interacting with customers on a daily basis. “whether it’s developing a new feature within your product or answering a phone call, your team should be able to deliver a consistent experience and make appropriate decisions that elevate the customer’s impression of the brand.” — Jeff Pruit
Take a moment to look at your values, your mission statement and the information you communicate to your team on a regular basis. Do they all know how to represent your brand? Are they passionate about being a part of the brand? If not, I suggest you forget your mission statement and reframe the way you are communicating your customer experience philosophy today.
Later posted to Medium.com
