Lexington has become as well known for its excellent culture as it is for its food and reception services. We caught up with Emma Langford, People Manager at Lexington, to discuss the importance of organisational culture in the service sector and the role it plays in helping provide a 5* service.
Over the last couple of years there has been plenty in the media about customer experience and organisational culture. The two areas are often written about separately but it’s vital that organisations create a synergy between the two.
We have worked hard to create a culture where our team is motivated, driven, happy, and has the tools to achieve exceptional customer service.
This investment in service and organisational culture is something Mike Sunley, CEO of Lexington, and the other founding directors were very clear about when they set up Lexington. The culture needs to be right for our people if we are to achieve fabulous service.
But it’s not something you just decide to do when you set up a business; create a few policies and then job done. The whole team needs to be dedicated to culture. We have introduced new initiatives to embed a culture of innovation and ensure we continue to achieve excellent service as our client sites grow.
Most recently we have adopted a service excellence framework, called eXperience. The idea behind the framework is to demonstrate we are putting trust in our team – giving them the tools to create a positive culture and drive continued consistency across our portfolio as our client sites grow and more people join our team.
We have selected service champions, who are at each of our client sites, and they are responsible for promoting a positive culture within their team. You can’t beat having team members who are pleasant and friendly to each other and customers, and are both good at and love what they are doing.
To help our service champions do this we provide them with a toolkit to drive the framework and encourage ‘service’ related discussions among our teams.
The eXperience framework helps our service champions:
Make it social
By having service champions at each site we have someone who the team is familiar with. They are responsible for facilitating service discussions and making sure what they do works for customers and the team.
Make it fun
To inject energy into the activity each service champion holds a deck of cards with visual aids on elements of exceptional service, which they use as a conversation starter. This allows each team member to bring their own personal experiences to the table.
Make it personal
Our service champions facilitate discussions around service – encouraging teams to reflect on their own experiences of good and bad service. They look at the core elements of exceptional service – everything from eye contact and smiling to knowing your clients likes and dislikes.
Make an impact
Team members take an action away from each conversation and ensure they are focusing on this when delivering service.
“We believe exceptional service needs to be at the heart of everything we do. When you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own.”
