Customer Service Thrives in a Positive Culture

The idea of establishing a company culture is nothing new, but it is not something all that leadership takes seriously or always places as a priority. A couple of months ago, I touched on the idea of how building an internal culture can greatly benefit customer service, and a recent report from The New York Times highlights the idea further. 

J.D. Power & Associates has rated Quicken Loans as the highest in customer satisfaction among mortgage originates in 2010, 2011, and 2012. For this rating, they were graded on four key factors, application/approval process, loan representative, closing, and contact.

“The study found that, during the past three years, lenders have improved in the areas of clearly explaining loan options and ensuring customers understand them; following up with customers in a timely manner after they complete their application; and proactively updating customers on the status of their application,” states a National Mortgage Professional writer. I can somewhat relate, since I myself have used Quicken Loans twice for refinancing my mortgage, and both times they made things absolutely smooth and easy, and that was outside of the years of this latest ranking.

What is it that can be attributed to this excellence year after year? It centers on culture. The company’s chief executives Mr. Gilbert and Bill Emerson believe in spending a good amount of time training their employees to follow a very particular work ethos. Long, all-day speech and training is a common occurrence, and it gets new employees up-to-speed on the company culture, and teaches them many beneficial pieces of information for dealing with the customers. When it is all said and done, what “Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Emerson have done is create a set of expectations as well as a sense of community and mission. Employees at Quicken Loans have it hammered into them: care about the customer, sweat every detail, improvise when you need to, always deliver,” states The New York Times article.

The goal is to encourage the employees to enjoy their job. To build a culture where the employees want to be there and are motivated to do their best. “If you don’t create a culture at your company, a culture will create itself, and it won’t be good. I sometimes hear people say ‘We don’t have a culture at our company.’ They have one. But if it hasn’t been nurtured, if no one has spent on any time on it, you can assume it’s the wrong culture,” says Mr. Emerson during a phone interview.

Hopefully, more and more companies will realize the importance of working towards creating a great culture that will stimulate the employee to go above and beyond. There is nothing stimulating or motivating about a bunch of frustrated, aggravated employees who sludge through their job each day. Working at establishing a positive culture can do wonders for the employees and should become evident in the service they provide. These final remarks from Quicken’s Bill Emerson are a good way to close:

“We are all exceptionally proud of what we have built right here in the heart of Detroit. What makes this recognition truly remarkable is that it comes at a time of tremendous growth for our company. It is proof that when you focus on your culture and keep a sharp vision of what is important, success comes naturally. I cannot be more proud of our team than I am today."

So, hopefully as you are out there seeking that CSR related job, you’ll also be able to find one with a culture that is able to motivate you to strive for excellence in all you do, especially when it comes to the customers.

Image courtesy of Adamr at FreeDigitalPhotos.net