A Culture the Sells

Recently, we did some focus groups for a client and one of the comparisons we drew was home improvement stores. We asked the participants what was the favorite home improvement store ans why.

The big winner was Home Depot (sorry Lowes.) When we asked why Home Depot was the favorite, the respondents said "because they offer those free how-to clinics." Makes sense. People want to feel empowered, right?

Well, after the first couple of sessions of hearing this recurring theme (even when they picked Lowe's the how-to clinics was still the main reason) we decided to ask a very thought provoking question. "How many of you attend these how-to clinics?" Guess what kind of response we got?

NONE! In all of the focus groups we did, only 1 person actually had taken advantage of these clinics.

Now, the operational reader would say, "we need to cut those how-to clinics. We are not getting much attendance and the payroll is costly." The cultural reader would say, "aha, see the power of a culture at work."

We have long said that the best companies let their corporate culture show. Because Home Depot wants their product to be "advice" they promote it internally and externally by offering a program of how-to clininci. And this program feeds the advice part of the culture and that feeds the minds of the employees and that translates into behavior and that translates in customer perception of your organization.

the next time you are in a strategic planning session at your organization, think about this; wwcd. That's right, what would our culture do? If you are trying to develop a culture of service, then that means you cannot cut your expenses or drive efficiencies to profitability - you must drive service.

Start strategic thinking instead of strategic planning. And start thinking about your culture and not your operational effectiveness.