Every aviation-related organization, from an airport to a charter management company, has a customer service culture. The unique customer service culture of any organization is described by a combination of characteristics. Certain characteristics align with one of four customer service culture profiles. Ultimately, our organization’s total customer service culture is a combination of all four profiles, though usually one cultural profile is more dominant than the others. The concept of customer service culture can be applied to an entire airport location or individual departments within that location.
The first customer service culture profile is called the Insider’s culture. The Insider’s culture pays attention to internal customers and the relationships between and among them. In a word, the Insider’s culture is about teamwork. The second profile is called the Technical culture, which relies on the technical capabilities of employees. Aviation related companies often have strong Technical cultures, because employees have high levels of technical knowledge, skill, or ability and rely on that for organizational survival. On the other hand, a Market culture, which is the third profile, relies on assessing the external customers’ needs and mobilizes or finds the technical capabilities necessary to meet those needs. Finally, the Customer’s culture is sensitive to relationships and communications with the external customer. This is the organization that believes it is all about the relationship with the external customer that will lead to success.
Next week, we will dig more deeply into the first cultural profile—the Insider’s culture—and address some intriguing questions: What is teamwork? How is that defined? How does one build an Insider’s culture?
