5 Ways to Create a Culture to Drive More Loyalty

In recent years company culture has received a lot of press and many books have been written on how to create an effective company culture. As an owner myself, I spend a lot of time thinking about the culture of our company and I’ve come to the conclusion that company culture is not created in one day, 30 days, 1 year, or even 5 years. Your culture will evolve as your company evolves and you don’t have to try and implement everything overnight to start building the culture you want.

We all want more customers, especially loyal customers. My goal at TL Connects is to create an environment and culture that employees, customers, vendors and whoever else we may interact with want to tell their friends about. With a positive culture, I truly believe you can drive more loyalty within your organization.

Here are 5 ways you can start creating a culture to drive more loyalty.

This is one of the quickest ways to start building a great culture for your customers and employees. A great leader will serve his employees & customers with enthusiasm.  With that approach, you will see your employees start creating an experience for your customers that they will want to come back to. Ken Blanchard wrote a great book called The Servant Leader that will give you some great insights on how to be a servant leader.

Use a bottom-up approach to your leadership. The graph below depicts an organizational chart that puts customers first, which I found quite relevant to servant leadership.

2. Autonomy.

Empower your employees to create the very best experience possible for your customer.  There have been various studies in recent years that show employees are more motivated by a sense of purpose and autonomy. Most leaders use a carrot and stick (reward & punish) style of leadership.

When you call a company with a problem, you want it solved quickly. You don’t want to talk to a supervisor, and then the supervisor’s manager, and then their manager to get your problem solved. You want the first person you talk with to be empathetic to your problem/concern and address it.

Often times the most loyal customers are created when you quickly solve a problem for them. It becomes a great story to tell their friends about how different you are than other companies, which in turn, creates a great “word of mouth” form of advertising for you.

Daniel Pink has written a great book called “Drive” that goes through the psychological principles of motivation through autonomy and a sense of purpose. You can also see his Ted Talk that I highly recommend below.
Dan Pink on Motivation

Have you ever been to a restaurant when the manager comes by and thanks you for visiting and offers to buy you dessert? Have you been to a retail store and the clerk offers you a tax discount?