Uncollaborative company cultures have long track records of retaining customers. Throughout our careers, you and I have worked for one, if not several, of these cultures.
As long as sellers continue to crush quotas and bring new customers into the revenue stream, uncollaborative company cultures survive. And potentially thrive. In spite of employee and customer churn.
This is just basically the status quo of the majority of today’s business. As long as companies replace the clients and employees who are disposable, who cares if they have uncollaborative company cultures?
Well, basically customers care about whether our organizations and associations have uncollaborative company cultures.
Why? First, customers often can tell whether our internal cultures are in turmoil, or not. When they make purchases in stores or walk into a bricks-and-mortar bank, our customers get a sense of whether culture is collaborative or disparate. Is behavior consistent and sincere, or artificial?
Next, our products and services – our output – sends a clear message of whether, or not, everyone in our organization or association is customer- and Quality-focused. Inconsistent output makes customers nervous about product and service lifecycle integrity.
What type of customer experiences result from uncollaborative company cultures?
In addition, our customer service process and personnel are clear indicators of whether everyone serving the customer is on the same cultural page. Even when customer service is outsourced. Consider the number of hand-offs between AI interfaces until the customer is permitted to speak with a human customer service agent. An association or organization sends a clear message to their customers about whether they are more technology-focused than customer-focused.
When we abandon customers repeatedly throughout their relationships with our organizations and associations, they defect. It doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Listen to my video on Customer Abandonment. Then, consider the value of my keynotes and workshops on collaborative storytelling and customer retention.
Uncollaborative company cultures miss out on the profitability of a strong human capital strategy.
When our organizations and associations communicate disjointed, rather than collaborative, efforts on behalf of serving customers, customers defect. Because there is a competitor who has built a strong cultural foundation upon shared vision and values for both employees and customers. They talk the talk, walk the talk and, therefore, walk the profitability walk.
Deming stated that: Profit from business comes from repeat customers. Customers that boast about your product and service, and that bring friends with them.
Can customer retention succeed in uncollaborative cultures? Yes, but not as long and as profitably as when collaboration is a strong element of those cultures. While we may not be able to wave a magic wand and instantaneously create a collaboration culture for our association or organization, incremental change works wonders.
The first step is moving one millimeter beyond the perceived Risk of collaboration. Instead, discover the opportunity and profitability of poking holes in corporate silos and employment tiers.
In what areas of your association or organization is collaboration most strong? Least strong? What type of storytelling can be created with a collaborative culture instead of a segmented one? Your stories retain customers.
Contact me for a free conversation to discuss your opportunities to develop a more collaborative, productive and profitable culture.
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset™ speaking programs showcase how profitable collaboration between STEM professionals, knowledge workers and manual workers bridges customer experience gaps. Move beyond what seems risky and discover your professional opportunities. Her professional speaker profile appears on the espeakers platform. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Babette’s Playbook of collaboration hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
Image source: Fotolia
Leave a Reply