The Power of a Customer-Centric Culture
Today, Art Papas spoke at the 9th Business of Software Conference USA in Boston in a session called “Growth and Arrogance vs. The Power of a Customer-Centric Culture.” In this session, Papas discussed how he refocused Bullhorn’s culture back on customer service after some serious hiccups in quality throughout a long-term period of growth. How did he accomplish this? It wasn’t, of course, a singular effort, but by working to ensure an incredible experience for everyone involved with the company, Papas encouraged and produced a positive culture change and got Bullhorn back on the right track.
Papas believes in the “Incredible Experience Cycle,” which covers every touch-point with people involved with a given company. With high achievement in every facet of this cycle, any company can create a customer-centric culture and generate success. The cycle has five key points:
- Incredible Products and Service – Simply put, an incredible product offering is a huge asset for any company. If your company has a product that people enjoy using, like Bullhorn CRM, you’ll probably find success. But it’s not enough to only have incredible products – you also have to provide excellent service to back up your products. And great customer service doesn’t just happen. It takes exceptional leadership and a complete cycle of incredible experiences to drive amazing service.
- Customer Success – Incredible products and service lead directly to customer success. It’s not hard to see why – with products that provide great return on investment to customers (and service that ensures quality of use), any company can drive both repeat business and demand that leads to new customers.
- Business Growth – With existing customers referring business by word of mouth and new customers flowing in regularly, businesses can experience tremendous growth in capital, size, market share, and more. Ultimately, growth leads to opportunity.
- Career Growth – In particular, growth leads to opportunities for the individuals who work for a given company. As a company grows, new positions will open up for those who want to expand their horizons, and promotions will become possible and available for high achievers. It’s not just about a person’s career growth within a company – it’s about personal growth on an individual level.
- Incredible Culture – When people feel that their company is responsible for their growth and they’re happy with their individual trajectories, you’re looking at the makings of an incredible workplace culture. Papas doesn’t want his employees at Bullhorn to feel “pretty good” about working there. He wants them to feel that Bullhorn is “an amazing place to work.” With this widespread attitude throughout the company, it’s no wonder that Bullhorn employees create such incredible products and provide incredible customer service.
With an incredible experience at every personal touch-point, any company can both encourage a customer-centric culture and create an incredible place to work.
