{"id":31505,"date":"2017-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/guest-blog-how-to-give-your-service-mantra-real-meaning\/"},"modified":"2024-01-22T14:09:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T14:09:35","slug":"guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<em>This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Jeff Toister, explains why creating a customer service mantra is essential. When it comes to your customer service promise and vision, every member of your organization must be in alignment. \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/meet-shep\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shep Hyken <\/a><\/em><!--more-->\r\n\r\nA customer service mantra is a powerful part of any service culture. It&#8217;s a statement that describes the type of service everyone in your organization should strive to provide. Having one can give your employees clear direction.\r\n\r\nI like to ask audiences I speak to for examples of companies with customer-focused cultures. A lot of companies make the list every single time and they all have service mantras:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Zappos: <em>Powered by Service<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li>The Ritz-Carlton: <em>We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li>JetBlue Airways: <em>Inspire Humanity<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nEmployees at these companies are absolutely obsessed with customer service. They take pride in their brand, support their coworkers, and go out of their way to help customers. Somehow, employees at these companies always seem to do the right thing.\r\n\r\nThis might lull you into thinking you can create a customer service mantra for your organization and Presto! you&#8217;ll magically have a customer-focused culture too.\r\n\r\nBut simply having one isn&#8217;t enough.\r\n\r\nThe <strong>real secret<\/strong> of these amazing companies is their mantras have deep meaning for employees who use it to guide their daily actions.\r\n<h3>Here&#8217;s how you can give your service mantra real meaning too.<\/h3>\r\n<h4><strong>Step 1: Clarify the Meaning<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nI once worked with a credit union that had recently created a customer service mantra. The credit union hired me to assess how well employees knew the mantra and recommend some next steps.\r\n\r\nMy study found that 95 percent of employees could recite the mantra word-for-word!\r\n\r\nThat&#8217;s pretty impressive, but there was still a big challenge. Nobody agreed on what the mantra actually meant! Even the credit union&#8217;s CEO disagreed with his top executives on the meaning.\r\n\r\nIt&#8217;s critical that everyone understands what the mantra means so they can use it to guide their actions. One way to do this is through the use of stories that exemplify the mantra.\r\n\r\nFor example, you may have heard the story about a Zappos customer service representative spending 10 hours on a call with one customer. It&#8217;s an extreme example, but it tells the story of what the <em>Powered by Service <\/em>mantra means.\r\n\r\nAnother great way to clarify your mantra&#8217;s meaning is to offer training to help all employees give consistent answers to these three questions:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>What is our mantra?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What does it mean?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>How can I contribute?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<h4><strong>Step 2: Empower Your Employees<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nMany people think of employee empowerment as giving people authority to serve their customers, but that&#8217;s only part of it.\r\n\r\nEmpowerment consists of three things:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Authority<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Resources<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Procedures<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nOne of my favorite brands is In-N-Out Burger. Their service mantra consists of just three words: <em>Quality, Cleanliness, and Courtesy<\/em>.\r\n\r\nIn-N-Out employees have the authority to take care of their customers. For example, there&#8217;s a not-so-secret secret menu where they&#8217;ll make your burger just the way you like it so long as they have the ingredients.\r\n\r\nThey also have extensive resources in high-quality, fresh food and plenty of staffing to keep each story running. In-N-Out also has carefully documented and trained procedures for nearly every facet of its operation that ensure a consistent and high-quality product and experience.\r\n<h4><strong>Step 3: Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nChances are you had a combination locker in high school.\r\n\r\nBack then, you could open it in seconds without even thinking. But what about now? Assuming the combination hasn&#8217;t changed, most of us couldn&#8217;t get our lockers open no matter how much time we&#8217;re given.\r\n\r\nThat&#8217;s how our memories work. We retain information we consistently use and forget information we no longer need.\r\n\r\nThis means the only way to ensure your employees remember the customer service mantra is to repeatedly reinforce it. There are three big ways to do this:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Model it<\/strong>, so employees see you lead by example.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Communicate it<\/strong> often, so employees hear it repeated.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Align it<\/strong> with strategy, so employees must live it.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nCreating a customer service mantra is essential, but the only way it will guide your employees&#8217; actions is if it has real meaning.\r\n\r\n<em>Jeff Toister is a consultant, trainer, and author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.serviceculturebook.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Service Culture Handbook:<\/a> A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. <\/em>\r\n<p class=\"article-headline ng-binding\"><em>Read Shep\u2019s latest Forbes Article: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/shephyken\/2017\/03\/25\/the-best-loyalty-programs-go-beyond-rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Best Loyalty Programs Go Beyond Rewards<\/a><\/p>\r\n<span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Jeff Toister, explains why creating a customer service mantra is essential. When it comes to your customer service promise and vision, every member of your organization must be in alignment. \u2013 Shep Hyken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6796],"tags":[5068,5739,5817],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.5 (Yoast SEO v22.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning - Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning - Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post my colleague, Jeff Toister, explains why creating a customer service mantra is essential. When it comes to your customer service promise and vision, every member of your organization must be in alignment. \u2013 Shep Hyken\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ShepHykenSpeaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ShepHykenSpeaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-31T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-22T14:09:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/guest-post@2x.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"392\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shephyken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shephyken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"shephyken\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b92dbe4f9f734f7c0d600fc8014b7fe2\"},\"headline\":\"Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-31T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-22T14:09:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\"},\"wordCount\":763,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b92dbe4f9f734f7c0d600fc8014b7fe2\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/guest-post@2x.png\",\"keywords\":[\"empower employees\",\"customer service mantra\",\"service culture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Customer Service Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\",\"name\":\"Guest Blog: How to Give Your Service Mantra Real Meaning - Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/guest-post@2x.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-31T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-22T14:09:35+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/guest-blog-give-service-mantra-real-meaning\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/guest-post@2x.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/guest-post@2x.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":392,\"caption\":\"5 Surefire Ways to Improve Online Communication with Your Customers\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/\",\"name\":\"Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\",\"description\":\"Award-winning Customer Service &amp; 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