Don’t think that culture is particularly influential to your organisation?
Let me give you an example of its power.
Virgin Trains and Avanti West Coast have both had the franchise for managing services on the west coast mainline.
They operate the same trains, on the same tracks, stopping at the same stations.
Often, it’s the same staff (as employee tenure is long), on the same terms and conditions of employment, performing the same roles.
So why are the customer and employee experience so different?
In a word: culture.
Virgin’s underlying mission was fuelled by the belief that “No one gets on a train for fun; they’re going somewhere.”
In that environment, the approaches and behaviours that manifest and are reinforced are things like:
🐝 We’ll tell customers what platform their connections are on
🐝 We’ll reward and recognise customer feedback
🐝 We’ll have fun in our perks, approaches and incentives (Red Letter Days, anyone?)
Avanti’s underlying mission is fuelled by the belief that “We are safe hands for investors.”
It’s not that this is a bad strategy. But we must recognise that, in that environment, the approaches and behaviours that manifest are understandably different.
And that means the experiences of those approaches and behaviours will be (and are) different.
That is the influence of culture.
It can change the employee and customer experience significantly – even when it’s the same staff, stations, stock, and stops.
The question is then: “Does your culture support the strategy you want to deliver?”
As customers, I’ll let you think of what your answer might be.
