Are your customers telling you the whole truth?
The term company culture gets tossed around a lot, but what does it truly mean? While team happy hours and company outings are fun and certainly drive camaraderie, they don’t define your company culture. To find what really drives the values and beliefs of your team, you need to dig deeper and pay attention to the things that spur passion and motivate your team to work to their full potential.
To be a service excellence leader in the homebuilding, remodeling, and home services industry, quality has to be one of the things that inspires the way your company operates. Ultimately, as the leader of your business, you set the tone for your company culture. If you set the expectation that you’re passionate about quality and achieving success through service excellence, your team will follow suit. Here are ten ways to help you develop a culture of quality at your company.
Identify the core values of your business
The first step in developing a culture of quality at your company is identifying what the core values are. Is always doing the right thing something that’s important to your business? What about never sacrificing quality craftsmanship? Your company’s core values should serve as a roadmap to help your team work together and navigate through their decisions.
Share the hopes you have for your company
You started your business for a reason, what’s your vision? Not only are you inspiring your team by sharing the hopes you have for your company, but you’re also helping them identify ways in which they can help you accomplish your goals.
Ensure all roads lead to service excellence
Educating your staff on the impact they have on a customer’s experience, and strategizing how to improve service as a team can be incredibly powerful for your business. In order for excellent customer service to be delivered in all avenues of your company, you have to have a culture that emphasizes its importance.
Take the time to properly onboard new members of your team
As your company begins to grow (due to all of the referral business coming your way, stemming from the awesome customer service you’re providing), you’re going to begin hiring additional resources. Take your time in the hiring process and make sure you’re finding people who are a good cultural fit. Skills are important, but they can be taught. Commitment to quality and excellence is something that the right candidate should be radiating with.
Empower your employees to take ownership of their work
Our Founder and CEO, otherwise known as the awesome Geoff Graham, once told me his desire for our team was to have all employees feel empowered enough to choose their own adventure. To me, this meant I had the power to be innovative and try new things that I felt could benefit our company. Take it from me, having the trust and support of your boss feels great! Motivate your team and build a sense of loyalty by empowering them to take ownership of their work and trust them to choose the right adventures.
Encourage communication
Sometimes the very thing that keeps your team from sharing feedback with you is you. When developing a company culture focused on quality, it’s critical that the lines of communication are open between you, your team, and your customers. Communicating through email is efficient, but don’t forget about touching base through good old fashion conversation.
Listen to the feedback from your team
Your team interacts with your customers daily. They have insight into things you need to know about. Show them you value their feedback and take time to listen to what’s happening on the front lines.
Be consistent
Consistency breeds credibility. In order to garner culture adoption among your team, it’s important that you be consistent with what quality should look like for your company and how to carry out your values. If you and your team consistently deliver quality, your reputation will reflect that.
Celebrate successes
Homebuilders, remodelers, and home services contractors tend to run a mile a minute. But sometimes the best way to reinforce your company culture is to pause and celebrate the successes. Recognize leaders on your team who show their commitment to your company’s core values.
Measure the adoption of your culture
How do you know if everyone on your team has bought into the idea of being a part of a company focused on quality? Your customers will tell you. If you’re hearing more complaints than compliments, that’s definitely a sign that not everyone is on your quality bandwagon. Beyond that, look at how your team works with one another and approaches projects. If they support one another and strive to go above and beyond, you’re on the right track.
