Why does it take so long? You say that it can take 18-24 months to change the culture of a company with 500 or 1000 employees? Why? Can't you just develop some customer service standards and e-mail them to everyone? Can't you just tell everyone to get their act together and start focusing on the customer? Can't you just get the employees to smile more and tell the employees what to do? It's quick and simple.
Right?
We wish.
In the perfect world, that would be the case. But much of what's identified in that first paragraph really comes down to setting expectations with staff of how they should behave. But setting expectations with staff about what are acceptable behaviors and actually getting those behaviors put into practice can be two totally different things.
That's why it can take a while to change a culture. Because a culture change results when behavior truly changes. And a lot is required to change behavior. Maybe you're setting the expectations, but if staff aren't trained in HOW to deliver great service, many can't. You can set the expectations, but if employees are not rewarded for great customer service or held accountable for being terrible at customer service, what's the incentive to improve?
If employees are told they should be customer service-oriented, but their managers are dictatorial and more task-oriented than customer-oriented, then they're not witnessing models of proper behavior.
If employees are told to be customer-oriented, but the organization is disorganized, or the company isn't structured to communicate between silos or work together to meet the customer's needs, then the best attitudes can't overcome a poor structure.
It should be easy to change a culture, but the larger the organization, the harder it is to change a culture. Or the tougher it is to turn over staff (i.e., fire the "bad apples"), the harder it is to change a culture.
Understand what it really takes to change a culture. Be systematic. Be driven. But do whatever it takes to get it done.
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