Strengths and Weaknesses of customer-centric culture - Essay Example

Strengths and Weaknesses centric culture orientation is often a taken-for –granted approach in businesses. However, a lot of companies fail in developing an appropriate customer-oriented culture even when there organisational policies put the customer on the top of the charts. Strength for employees - employee does know exactly what the company values (Clow, K. E. and Baack, 2011), in order to create a ‘community’  good communication of rules and vision of the company leads to well organized service, importance of this corporate strategy since the beginning (precursor)  customer satisfaction increases -- normally – employee could get caught in crossfire between organisation and customer  make profit out of a mistake of a customer instead of satisfy him - systems are only as reliable as the people who are working with them.

Amazon have realised that hiring the correct people for the job is more important than even the customer.  working systems  customer satisfaction  trained employees necessary (Mullins, - empower employees in a customer centric culture  authority and tools to redefine problems and to solve them  motivation / feel as a part of organisational big picture (Maslow Hierarchy, belonging needs at work)  less bureaucracy  faster solutions  higher customer satisfaction For instance, a detailed market survey was conducted by Harley Davidson to find out what actually can improve the customer satisfaction.

The findings of that survey revealed that a more empowered employee culture would allow employees to use their best judgment other than the orthodox procedure of completing the tasks. In this way the employees can deliver more customer focused services. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Technology (IT) support Amazons business strategy, in order to meet right customers’ expectation and build a sustainable portfolio (records data on customer buyer behaviour) Employees are shaped as the brands of the company  For Example.

Organizations such as AT&T and Barclays have created an environment where employees are perceived as the real image of the company to their customers, enhancing employee identity and recognition. - Employees are also customers of organization, if organization manages to satisfy its internal customers (employees), they would certainly satisfy the external customers of the organization. For example, South West Airlines is particular more famous due to providing the ultimate privilege and honour that their employees expect from the company.

If the mission statement of SWA is observed, the whole content emphasizes upon employee centricity which ultimately leads to customer centricity. Weaknesses for employees - employee can feel less worth (Maslow Hierarchy, belonging needs at work)  customer is right – always (even when he is wrong)  employee isn’t demanded to think about this -- solution – empowerment or employee-centric orientation - employee’s needs could be forgotten  focus and attention on one thing – customer  employee’s needs less monitored than customer satisfaction -- solution – appropriate support system for employees, only satisfied employees deliver quality service, health service, child care.

- to ensure quality service – every costumer should get same service  standardised service makes employees feel standardised (going by the rule book)  became less interested in work – make mistakes -- solution – job enrichment or job rotation - employees need to be trained and kept up to date  increases costs  selection process and training methods (Grönfeldt and Strother, 2005)  make sure employees enjoy service-related task - not systems and structures create employees customer orientation (TQM assumption  focuses on systems rather than individuals – little evidence) -- solution: select people with customer orientation - changing of a customer centric culture difficult  Schein (1984 in Kahn, 2010): Culture “ A pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration" that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”  hard to change and implement  culture develops often through the founder of organisation – Amazon Bezos (Clow, K. E. and Baack, 2011) -- solution – consistency of values over time (corporate identity), clear communication, Satisfying Customers  internal or external  Part of the employees job (Kennedy et al, 2002) Personality traits also play a key role in determining the customer-oriented culture  Training alone cannot improve employees behaviour to satisfy the customers  Enduring Personality Traits & Appropriate Training  Leads to Customer-oriented Culture (Periatte et al, 2007) References Clow, K. E. and Baack, D. (2011) Cases in Marketing Management. (London) Sage.

Grönfeldt, S. and Strother, J.B. (2005) Service leadership: the quest for competitive advantage. Kahn, H. (2010) Organisational Behaviour: the management program. (Edinburgh) Heriot-Watt-University. Kennedy, Karen Norman., Lassak, Felicia G. & Goolsby, Jerry R., 2002. Customer Mind-Set of Employees throughout the organization. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 30(2), pp.159-171. Mullins, L.J. (2005) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 7th ed. (Harlow) Prentice Hall. Periatt, Jeffery A.

, Chakrabarty, Subhra and Lemay, Stephen A., 2007. Using personality traits to select customer-oriented logistics personnel. Transportation Journal 46 (1), pp.22–37.