Author Archives: Shep Hyken

About Shep Hyken

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times, bestselling business author. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Are Your Customers Actually Happy?

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Are Your Customers Actually Happy?

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Are your customers happy, or not? How do you know? How often do you ask them? If you do ask them, and they tell you, what do you do with that information?

This is all about customer feedback. If a customer is willing to take the time to give you feedback, good or bad, it’s a gift. Treat it as such. It’s an opportunity to know what’s working and what’s not. And there are many ways to get that information.

A common way to seek feedback today is through a survey emailed after the customer interacts with the company or brand. Unfortunately, some companies go to the expense of designing and sending the survey, asking the customer to spend their precious time completing the survey, and then don’t act on the customer’s suggestions. Our annual customer experience research found that 57% of customers assume the company won’t make any changes based on their responses to a customer satisfaction survey. And some customers will stop doing business with a company or brand because of their surveys. Our research found that 20% of customers stopped because they sent too many surveys, and 18% stopped because the surveys were too long.

Recently I had my car in for its annual service, which included an oil change, fluid checks, filter replacements and more. Within an hour after I picked up my car, I received an email requesting feedback. From past experiences, I knew this would take five to 10 minutes to complete. I chose not to respond, because I had many other things to do in the short time I had left in the office that day. I don’t know what percentage of customers complete the survey, but maybe there is a different way to get feedback.

Notice I said a different, not necessarily better, although I’ll let you decide whether it is better. When I picked up my car, there could have been a tablet with four buttons to select from, asking me if I was very happy, somewhat happy, somewhat not happy or not happy. It would have taken me three seconds—probably less—to tap on one of those buttons. By the way, there could also be an option for me to leave feedback if I wanted to take a moment to do so. Regardless, the quick press of a button is much easier than a 10-question emailed survey with quantitative and qualitative feedback questions.

I recently interviewed Miika Mäkitalo, the CEO of HappyOrNot, one of the leading customer feedback solutions used by more than 4,000 brands in over 100 countries, on Amazing Business Radio. There’s a good chance you’ve seen HappyOrNot feedback technology in a store, restaurant, stadium or airport. It is a small tablet or kiosk with four large buttons as I just described in my auto repair center example. This simple technology gives you fast and actionable feedback that can be used and taken advantage of almost immediately—and at the same time, it respects your customers’ time.

And as powerful as that instant feedback is for customers, Makitalo suggests his HappyOrNot technology is also a perfect solution for employee feedback. Imagine a terminal or tablet in the breakroom where employees can anonymously (unless they want to share their names) leave a simple “I’m happy or not” message with the quick push of a button. Consider all the feedback you could gather, such as, “How happy are you with the new personal time (PT) policy?” Or, “How happy are you with the new food vendor in the cafeteria?” You get the idea. Get feedback from employees. Their happiness will be felt by customers. And the opposite is true. Unhappy employees will taint the customer experience. As I often say, “What’s happening on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by customers.”

So, if you want to know what your customers—and employees—are thinking but aren’t sure where to start, this simple solution could be the answer. Ask one question at a time … and don’t forget to act on the feedback!

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credits: Shep Hyken

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Manage Every Moment

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Manage Every Moment

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I just heard an excellent motivational speaker, Antonio Neves, and one of his messages was called “The Last 30 Days.” He talked about visiting a marriage counselor with his wife, where they were asked to consider the question: Looking back over the last 30 days, if you asked your spouse to marry you again, would they say yes?

He then spun that question to business and specifically talked about employment. That version goes like this: Looking back over the last 30 days, would your boss rehire you?

When I do annual reviews of my team, one of the questions I ask myself is, “Based on the past year, would I be excited to hire this employee again?” It’s the same type of question. The point is that we validate our decisions based on our experiences in both our personal and professional lives.

So, let’s take it to the customer service and CX world. However, we aren’t going to look back for a year or even 30 days. We aren’t going to look back at all. We’re going to look at what’s happening right now, at this very moment. My version of this is what I refer to as the Loyalty Question: What am I doing right now that will make this customer want to do business with us again the next time they need what we sell?

Every interaction with a customer becomes your CX judgment day, especially when there is a problem or complaint. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve done business and how perfect the experience has been. The moment there is a negative issue, it becomes judgment day. Someone could have done business with you for 10 years, but when a problem or friction arises, that moment is your opportunity to earn the right to continue to do business with that customer for another 10 years.

The point of all these ideas – 30 days, one year, or even today – is about managing the moment, whether it be multiple moments over an extended period or the moment you’re experiencing right now. We must be focused and attentive to what’s happening at that moment. Jan Carlson, who I’ve written about and talked about since the beginning of my career, came up with the ultimate concept for successfully managing these interactions. He calls it the Moment of Truth, and this is how he defines it: Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, they have an opportunity to form an impression.

Manage every moment! These are the interactions that make our customers say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Pexels

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Price is Relevant Only in the Absence of Value

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Price is Relevant Only in the Absence of Value

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

The title of this article may sound like a lesson in sales, but it’s much bigger than that. It’s about the entire customer experience. If a promise to provide value in the CX is built into a company’s mission and values statements, it potentially becomes part of the culture.

Imagine if your organization were bold enough to state that the value it delivers to customers would make price irrelevant. How do you define that value? It’s simple. It’s the value provided in the customer experience. But, remember that your definition of this value is only good if it aligns with what customers want and hope for.

Let’s talk about making price irrelevant. My good friend and fellow customer experience expert John DiJulius has often said, “Make price irrelevant.” He and I jab at each other over this statement. I’ve said, “Make price less relevant. There’s no way you can make price completely irrelevant.” John knows this, and he admits it, but at the same time, he argues the point that if you provide enough value with the experience, you can distance your company from the competition, even while charging more than others. I can live with that because he’s right. We’re just using different words to get us to the same outcome.

Shep Hyken Knockout Cartoon

So, let’s not get caught up in the semantics of these two sentences. We are both in alignment, and you should be, too.

Furthermore, this way of thinking crosses over to the employee experience (EX). Can you create an employment opportunity so fulfilling that people would line up to apply for the job, even though they might make more elsewhere? There are companies, like Disney, that have achieved that. The Disney culture is so powerful that people love the company more than a higher paycheck from another employer. Of course, every company, Disney included, has to be somewhat competitive with compensation and benefits. But in the end, for many, happiness and fulfillment are more important than a few extra dollars in their paycheck.

Let’s close by considering three ideas:

  1. The Alignment: Value in the customer experience and employee experience is non-negotiable. You can’t have one without the other.
  2. The Opportunity: Create experiences that are so enriching that neither customers nor employees can easily walk away, regardless of dollars.
  3. The Challenge: I challenge you to define your version of value and make it so compelling you’re willing to include it in your mission and value statements.

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Adapting Your Business For A New Generation

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The Zero Consumer Revolution

Adapting Your Business For A New Generation

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

There’s a new type of customer in town, and you need to know and understand them. McKinsey has coined the term Zero Consumer, defined as a consumer who shops across different channels, expects excellent service (including fast shipping) and sustainable products. But even if you provide all of that, there’s one more critical thing to know—they show little loyalty.

For 40 years, I’ve preached the famous concept from Harvard Business School professor emeritus and former editor of Harvard Business Review, Dr. Theodore (Ted) Levitt, that the function of a business is to get and keep customers. Furthermore, research from many reputable sources tells us that it’s less costly to maintain and keep customers than to keep finding new ones. However, this new customer, the Zero Consumer, can make the second part of Dr. Levitt’s function (keeping customers) more challenging.

In addition to that, Dr. Levitt is also known for stating that “companies should stop defining themselves by what they produce and instead reorient themselves toward customer needs.” This is further explained in his article, What Business Are You In?: Classic Advice from Theodore Levitt. I love his example about gasoline.

In this article, Levitt states, “Let’s start at the beginning: the customer.” He uses the example that a consumer driving a car “strongly” dislikes the experience of buying gasoline. He said, “People actually do not buy gasoline. They cannot see it, taste it, feel it, appreciate or really test it. What they buy is the right to continue driving their cars.” He refers to a gas station as a tax collector that is paid a “periodic toll” as the price of customers using their cars.

My take on this is that the gas station is a commodity. People buy from a specific gas station out of convenience, including location (proximity to the customer’s home or place of work) and ease of entrance and egress (e.g., the gas station is on the right side of a busy street). Price is also a consideration. It seems gasoline is gasoline, regardless of where you buy it.

This ties into the McKinsey Zero Consumer concept. The majority of Zero Consumers seem to be Gen-Z and Millennials. Here are some general characteristics of this new group of consumers:

  • Zero Consumers have zero boundaries in that they are influenced by social media, celebrities and content (articles, blogs, videos, etc.). They expect omnichannel options and move through different buying channels to make purchases. In other words, be prepared to sell to them when they are ready and on whatever channel is most convenient to them: in a physical store, on an app, on a website, etc.
  • Zero Consumers no longer fall in the middle. Their shopping habits are tougher to define. They either try to save money or are willing to spend more on what they want. McKinsey’s research finds that mid-priced goods and services have declined 10%. That doesn’t seem like much, but the average consumer is “trading down” to lower-priced goods. But at the same time, 40% say they plan to splurge on their spending, especially in travel, apparel and restaurants.
  • Zero Consumers have zero loyalty. That’s a bold statement from McKinsey. In 2002, they found that half of consumers claimed to switch brands versus one-third two years earlier. Furthermore, they say, “Absent truly differentiated, exclusive offerings, the retailer will soon become a utility—just a means of distribution. This sounds a lot like Dr. Levitt’s gasoline example. If you’re delivering a commoditized, same-as-everyone-else experience, don’t expect to be treated differently than a commodity.
  • Zero Consumers have zero patience. This trend has been around since Amazon started teaching customers what fast and convenient service is all about. Consumers don’t need to wait, and if you can’t deliver at their expected speed, they will find another company that will.

I’ve taken direction on this article from McKinsey content and research. McKinsey is one of the go-to resources for understanding all things business. Regardless of the type of business you’re in or the type of customers you sell to, you must consider how the broader consumers behave. Your customers compare you to their favorite experiences, including their retail brand experiences. While you may or may not be a retailer and be subjected to this type of customer, you must understand they expect whatever they love from other places they do business with from you as well. The more you know and understand them, the better decisions you’ll make on how to market, sell and service them.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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Curiosity Improves the Customer Experience

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Curiosity Improves the Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

“Curiosity killed the cat.” According to Wikipedia, this saying first appeared in a 1598 play, Every Man in His Humour, by English playwright Ben Johnson. The following year, Shakespeare used a similar quote in Much Ado About Nothing. The intent behind this saying is “to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation. …” In other words, be careful pushing for more information. Knowing more is not always best.

That may be the case for the cat, but it’s not so in the world of customer service. A good customer service rep, salesperson, or anyone interacting with a customer should be curious. And that kind of curiosity shows up in the questions they ask.

Here’s another quote for you to ponder, and this one is from Dan Sullivan, founder of the Strategic Coach program. He says, “In a world where everyone is vying to be the most interesting, be the one who is most interested.” In other words, be curious. Sullivan says to ask genuine questions, actively listen, and take the opportunity to get to know clients and customers anytime you have contact with them.

The idea of curiosity in customer service is simple. Ask more questions. Once you understand what the customer is asking for or what the underlying issue is, ask more questions for the purpose of clarity and understanding.

Shep Hyken Curiosity Cat Cartoon

Certain types of questions are better than others. For example, open-ended questions allow you to gather more information. An example would be, “Can you please tell me what was happening right before the problem began?”  A follow-up question such as, “Can you elaborate on that?” shows you’re actively listening. You may even let the customer know you’re taking notes. But be careful about asking too many “closed-ended questions.” These are questions that require simple yes or no responses. You don’t need to avoid them altogether, but too many yes/no questions could make a customer feel like they are in a courtroom being cross-examined by an unfriendly attorney.

Your goal is to grasp what the customer needs, and asking the right questions shows you are interested in helping the customer. It also demonstrates empathy, as the right questions show you are taking the time to understand the customer. And the right questions build trust. They help make the customer feel as if they are valued and heard.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it will give life to your customer relationships!

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CEO Secrets of a Successful Turnaround

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CEO Secrets of a Successful Turnaround

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

While most outside of the tech industry won’t know the Avaya brand, most will have experienced its technology if you’ve contacted customer support or communicated directly with a brand for any reason. It is a multinational technology company based in the U.S. that provides communications and collaboration technologies for contact centers in 172 countries, including 90% of the Fortune 100 companies in the U.S. Its product helps give a better customer service experience for its customer’s customers.

I had the opportunity to interview Alan Masarek about the Avaya story. Specifically, we discussed what happened since he joined the company less than one year ago. The short version of the story is that he and his leadership team successfully guided the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, restructuring its finances and streamlining its operations. And they did this while maintaining what Masarek calls Avaya’s North Star.

In referring to that “North Star,” Masarek says, “Customer service and experience is core to who we are and for every role in the company. Our customers count on us for the communications and collaboration technology that make customer interactions not only work, but work better.” He went on to explain the four core components they focus on:

1. Culture: Everything starts with culture. Masarek wants to make Avaya a “destination place to work,” which means attracting and keeping the best talent. Once you get good people, you must keep them there. His strategy for creating a “destination place to work” includes three components. The first is a rewards and recognition program that validates an employee’s efforts and creates a sense of accomplishment. The second is to create a culture employees want to be a part of. And third is to provide an opportunity for growth. Masarek says a company’s positive reviews and ratings on glassdoor.com, where employee rate their employers, is a success criteria he looks at.

2. Product: Avaya is a technology company and must continuously innovate and improve. They created a “product roadmap” where customers can see what products are being phased out, retained and, most importantly, being developed for the future. “We must deliver innovation—the right innovation—and we have to deliver it on time and with quality,” said Masarek. “We will be successful when we are both transparent (which is why Avaya published the roadmap) and reliable. When we deliver on that commitment over time, that reliability becomes trust.”

3. Customer Delight: If your customers don’t like the experience or the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, they will find another company and product that meets their needs. Masarek recognizes the importance of customer delight and has invested heavily in hearing and understanding the “Voice of the Customer,” paying attention to customer satisfaction scores and NPS (Net Promoter Scores). Masarek is emphatic about customer delight, stating, “We are in service to the customer. CX is everyone’s responsibility.” And this isn’t just lip service. Those satisfaction and NPS numbers are tied to some of the employees’ compensation plans.

4. Accountability: “We must be accountable,” Masarek says, “to one another, to the customers, and to the results. When you take care of the first three (culture, product and customer delight), this fourth one becomes much easier to achieve.”

While sharing the entire story in a short article is impossible, you can see the overarching strategies and thinking behind Masarek’s leadership and Avaya’s success. And here’s my observation: It’s not complicated!

If you look at the four core components Avaya focuses on, you might say, “There’s nothing new here,” but don’t let simplicity, or that these seem like common sense, get in the way of incorporating them into your strategy. In good times and bad, focusing on culture, product, customer delight and accountability/results are the undeniable strategies that drive success.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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Why Yelling at Customer Service Agents Doesn’t Work

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Why Yelling at Customer Service Agents Doesn't Work

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Someone asked me a question: Sometimes I’m so frustrated when I call a company’s customer service number. I try to be nice, but that doesn’t always work. What do you think if I yell at them?

Here is my answer: A couple of old expressions come to mind. First, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil,” which means if you make enough noise, you might get some action. On the other hand, another expression might be more appropriate for these situations: “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” So, be friendly but stern. At the beginning of the conversation, note the agent’s name and try to build a rapport. This also gives you a name to reference if you aren’t getting your problem resolved. Be direct about the problem, but don’t lose your temper. If you feel you’re getting angry, stop and pause. You can ask for a supervisor. And if you really think you are 100% right and the customer support agent is wrong, consider ending the call and calling back to speak with a different agent who may respond differently. I’m amazed at how often I call a company and talk to two or more people, getting a different answer each time.

So that’s my advice for the customer. Now, let’s switch to the business on the receiving end of the customer’s disappointment and anger and discuss the problem.

I’ve covered how to handle angry customers many times, so let’s not go there again. If you go to www.CustomerServiceArticles.com, you will find many articles covering that topic. Instead, I want to emphasize the last part of my response to the question: sometimes customer service agents – and other employees – have different answers to the same questions. The problem is a training issue.

My comment about not being surprised about getting different answers comes from my experience that companies don’t often focus on answers to common sense questions. The reason is that the answers should be common sense. But that doesn’t guarantee a consistent response from one employee to the next.

Create a database of customer questions and answers, and train employees to use it. The goal is to respond with the same answer every time. When a customer doubts the answer and calls back only to get a different answer from a different employee, it erodes the customer’s confidence, not to mention the frustration the customer experiences by not getting the right answer the first time. In short, consistency creates confidence.

By the way, if you have any questions about customer service or customer experience, reach out to me on any social media channel – I’m pretty much everywhere. I’ll answer your question on social media, in my weekly customer service newsletter, on my Amazing Business Radio podcast or on my Be Amazing or Go Home TV show. And be sure to use the hashtag #AskShep.

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Six Ways to Put Customers At the Center of Your Business

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Six Ways to Put Customers At the Center of Your Business

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

It’s not uncommon to hear leaders say, “We must put the customer at the core of everything we do.” What does that really mean? I had a chance to interview Howard Moodycliffe for Amazing Business Radio. Moodycliffe is the CEO of TimeToReply, a SAAS company that empowers employees to deliver fast, efficient, consistent responses through email. In our interview, he gave his take on the “customer at the core of your business” comment and more. Below are some of what he believes goes into a successful customer experience, followed by my commentary.

1. Put the Customer First – According to Moodycliffe, this is the most important strategy. Here’s his advice. Answer the question, “What experience do you want your customers to have?,” and then create it. Customers must feel valued and respected, and their needs must always be at the forefront of anything you design—both the product or service and the process of doing business with you.

2. Be Proactive and Respond Quickly – A fast response is good, but proactive communication is better. Moodycliffe can look at customers’ data and determine if they should receive a proactive email. He’s also quick to point out that email is just one channel. His concept applies to customer communication regardless of the channel. In our interview, I shared that one of my clients in the internet/cable industry gathers all of the ways a customer can be contacted: email, phone, social channels, WhatsApp, etc. If there is a problem, they send announcements to all channels, hoping to reach the customer on one of them. As for responding quickly, knowing what the customer expects is essential. He quotes Jay Baer, who says, “Response time should be just a little faster than the customer expected.” And realize that each channel has different expectations. You probably won’t be happy if you call customer support and are put on hold for fifteen (15) minutes. But you would be elated if you sent an email and received a response within two hours.

3. Personalize the Experience – Moodycliffe says, “Customers want to feel like they are more than just a number.” Our customer experience research found that 71% of customers believe a personalized experience from an agent or company employee is important. However, making a customer feel as if they are an account or a number could be worse than a generic, un-personalized experience.

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage – Tech in customer service can be used to automate tasks, provide self-service options, and collect/analyze feedback. Moodycliffe emphasizes that technology should empower employees when they interact with customers. If you bring in a new program that is cumbersome and difficult for employees, that pain will eventually be felt by customers on the outside.

5. Empower Your Employees – While this has been preached by many (including myself), we all need to be reminded of the importance of letting your employees do what they are being paid to do: take care of customers (or other employees). In addition, another advantage of using technology is that it empowers users (employees) to be more effective and efficient at what they do.

6. Measure and Improve – The first thing that came to mind when Moodycliffe mentioned this was the quote often attributed to Peter Drucker: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” You can’t assume that you’re delivering a great customer experience. You must measure your performance and use feedback to create a better experience.

In today’s competitive landscape, the notion of putting customers at the core of your business isn’t a cliché — it’s a mandate for success. From Moodycliffe’s insights to research-backed strategies, it’s clear that proactive, personalized, and technology-empowered strategies are not an option but essential.

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Playing to Win the Customer Service Game

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Playing to Win the Customer Service Game

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

One of the more enjoyable activities in my life is playing hockey. When I’m in town – not out speaking at conferences – I lace up the skates several times a week to play in a friendly hockey game. In close games, when my team is up by one or two goals, I remember my school days when our coaches encouraged us to continue playing to score, even when we were winning, versus switching to more defensive play to prevent the other team from scoring.

So, what does this have to do with business, specifically customer service and CX? Plenty!

In any team sport, the goal is to win. In the customer service world, we should create a “game plan” to deliver an experience that is perfect, never requiring a customer to reach out to us because of problems. Consider what Jeff Bezos of Amazon said many years ago: “The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.” That’s a perfect example of playing to win.

But that doesn’t always work. Bezos quickly discovered that as perfect as Amazon might be, once the package left the warehouse, control was in the hands of delivery companies such as the USPS, FedEx, or UPS. If there was a delivery problem, even if it wasn’t Amazon’s fault, the customer still called Amazon.

That’s where Amazon learned to play great defense, typically managing complaints or issues so well that the company has earned a reputation for amazing customer service. And they still play to win. They continue to open more distribution sites and grow their fleet of airplanes and vehicles to manage the entire experience, so they don’t have to rely on outside vendors as much. And as perfect as they try to be, there will still be problems, so a good defense, as in a good customer service experience, supports the effort to win.

While we can’t all be Amazon, we can play a similar game. We need defense, which is the ability to respond to our customers’ questions, problems, needs, and complaints in a way that renews confidence for them to continue doing business with us. However, we must also play to win, which means continuously improving the customer experience, including eliminating or mitigating any of those customer issues.

Shep Hyken Award Cartoon

In the customer service world, playing to win in customer service means eliminating the reasons customers call us for problems and complaints. Playing defense is focusing on being good at handling our customers’ problems or complaints. We need to be good at both.

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Pexels

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Culture Secrets for Attracting and Keeping the Best Employees

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Culture Secrets for Attracting and Keeping the Best Employees

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

What’s happening on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by the customer. It is more important than ever to create a culture that attracts and retains the best employees. Good or bad, the culture and employees operating within it will influence the customer experience. That’s why today we’re going to dive into creating a workplace culture that gets and keeps your best people.

“Toxic workplace” is a common buzzword in today’s society. An article in Business Insider says nearly 30 million U.S. workers think their workplace is toxic. However, toxic workplaces don’t usually start out that way, and if they do, they find it difficult to survive in today’s hyper-competitive landscape. So, assuming the path is paved with good intentions, what goes wrong along the way?

While many companies are founded upon core values, rarely are those values consistently seen throughout the organization’s leadership. The two keywords in this statement are consistent and leadership. If your organization’s leadership and management aren’t representing its stated values, how can you expect their supporting employees to do so? Moreover, if the leadership isn’t consistently representing the company values, their actions can be even more polarizing.

Like it or not, humans remember bad memories longer than good memories; it’s a scientific fact that leads back to evolutionary behaviors. That means if your leaders are not consistently, meaning always, acting with the organization’s core values in mind, they aren’t representing the values at all. This will be noticed and remembered by employees. And, you can’t expect your people to act any differently than the leaders they are supposed to follow and admire.

So why implement a corporate culture in the first place? Jonathan Keyser, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of You Don’t Have to Be Ruthless to Win, states, “A good culture equates to so much more than just an enjoyable workplace or a happy team. A strong culture acts as a safeguard to protect your business’s most valuable resources. When companies do not focus on their culture, they are prone to significant setbacks, including a loss of brain trust, costly recruiting fees, training and development time, and stunted interpersonal collaboration, which all equate to a financial loss.”

When Keyser is not out speaking to organizations about how to create the culture of selfless service that gets employees to stay, he’s running a successful commercial real estate company. USA Today calls Keyser “The Commercial Real Estate Industry Disrupter.” I had a chance to meet with Keyser to discuss his book and he shared five steps to creating a healthy workplace culture:

1. Reflect – Keyser asks, “What type of employee do you want to attract?” You start by creating a mental persona for that individual. You want to define the behaviors and attitudes you are seeking. You also want to know what would attract that person to your organization. That will be reflected in your organization’s behavior. Keyser adds, “Once you define what’s important to your employees, follow the same process for your clients.”

2. Specify – Keyser says, “The problem with most corporate values is they are ambiguous. Companies will write words and phrases like integrity, teamwork and hard work on their office walls and don’t give context as to what those words truly mean within the workplace.” Go beyond the writing of the words and add simple and clear definitions or descriptions of how they are to be used at work. Start with your core value key phrases—what do they mean in relation to how your team interacts with each other and the outside world?

3. Differentiate – Is the culture you are implementing different enough from your competitors to win the attention of recruits? If not, you’re just like any other employer. You want to find your difference. For example, one of Keyser’s core principles is to be bold. Plenty of companies claim to be bold. However, Keyser takes it one step further and clearly defines what this means in his company. He says that they do not punish mistakes, because fear of mistakes keeps a person from being bold and willing to take massive action, which is where value is created.

4. Implement – This goes back to the second step, specify. One toxic person can destroy a culture, so it’s crucial to be specific when you outline what type of behavior is expected of your team and what corrective action should be taken if you find misalignment. The words you “write on your walls” must come to life.

5. Realign – The question isn’t if you’ll go out of alignment with the culture you’ve created (or want to create), it’s when. Keyser suggests constantly monitoring and evaluating the culture. Speak to members at the top and bottom of your organization, have your HR team conduct exit interviews, and check online sources like Glassdoor regularly. Keyser says, “A toxic workplace can spread like wildfire, so it’s your job to investigate proactively and realign when necessary.” I refer to this as defending the culture, which may be one of the most important jobs of a leader.

A toxic workplace will challenge the company to keep not only employees, but also customers. The leaders’ ability to define core values, as well as live and demonstrate them to employees is the key to creating an enduring, positive culture. These five steps to creating a healthy workplace culture will also help you prevent a toxic culture so you retain your best employees—and your best customers.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

Image Credits: Shep Hyken

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