It’s easy for the boss to proclaim, "WE need to serve OUR customers better!” and for everyone around the board room to Harrumph!!, Harrumph!! in agreement. But, how do you go about doing that, exactly? Is it the service department’s responsibility to work harder at the details? Should the sales department spend a portion of the day re-calling customers? Should the skills of the administrative department be stretched into the brave new world of customer relations?

Too often the approach to addressing a company’s service issues involves the dependence on one division or business unit rallying beyond their present “malaise” to span the gap created by unidentified business forces and “fix the problem.” Sometimes the sales department will rally like a craps player blowing on dice. Sometimes, the service department will apply for and win an industry award that will be ridden like a show horse straight into the desert. Far too often, the mantle of responsibility is draped over the elected boardroom messiah, fingers are crossed, new plans are laid, politics prevail, efforts fail, blame is placed and good people take a fall from a wall that was too high to scale alone.

Culture shift
This scenario may sound far-fetched, but it happens every day and is typical of the “Quick, let’s-do-something-cycle” that some businesses rely on as their strategic approach to a quarter-by-quarter existence. Instead, adopting an integrated marketing plan that manages a company’s cultural development is an approach that many businesses are finding pays dividends over time and can unite every division, department and worker with common goals, defined objectives and structured tactics to create lasting and beneficial change.

HPS Office Systems has been an Indiana tradition in office equipment sales and support since 1939. Seeing a need for increased revenues and a results-driven marketing plan, HPS Office Systems selected MillerWhite Integrated Marketing to perform the MW Fusion formula. This resulted in development of a plan to change the corporate culture from a “system-focused” approach, directing the need for results toward their lines of office machines, to a “solution-driven” approach that was focused on the people who consult, design, manage and service the products.

HPS people “are the brand”
“It was important to communicate to everyone at HPS the idea that ‘You are the brand’ – our corporate brand value is found in their sales efforts, their responsive service and their ongoing management of our clients,” said Cheryl Plourde, HPS’s Chief Financial Officer. “We had to change the mentality of our employees and managers and give them ownership of the HPS mission and vision in order to make our tagline and pledge active in explaining to our clients that they are going to receive value from our solutions and quick response from our service technicians. The value of HPS is not just in the machines we sell. It’s in the people who help provide business solutions and service them.”

To accomplish this shift in culture, HPS Office Systems changed its tagline from “When Only The Best Will Do” to “HPS Office Systems: Valued Solutions. Responsive Service.” This change communicated the culture shift and placed the value of its offering firmly in the minds of audiences. The pledge and vision statements were then used internally to help employees adjust their language, sales approach and marketing efforts to reflect the shift in culture.

“HPS Office System’s ‘customers’ became ‘clients’ and specific document imaging ‘systems’ became ‘solutions,’” Plourde said. “The more buy-in we had from employees and managers, the more we saw the culture beginning to change. This change has been reflected in our numbers as we respond to deliver what the research showed our customers needed. The two things our clients are looking for from us are value from the products we sell and responsiveness from our service technicians. The culture change has made our employees aware of exactly what they are selling, based on what our customers want from us.”

Shifting direction
Often a corporate merger or business unit expansion can lead to a loss of direction or general confusion as to a company’s vision, mission and pledge. Shifting a culture to clearly identify the direction of multi-functional management teams is often the best prescription for success.

Five years ago, Sony Disc Manufacturing rode high above competitors with a unified sales message that touted the ability to manufacture more discs, faster and cheaper than anyone else in the world. When computer file sharing and easy PC duplication practices began to chip away at the security that once was supplied by the shiny silver compacts, a paradigm shift was on the horizon for the world’s largest disc manufacturer.

The United States-based Sony Disc Manufacturing group merged with Europe-based Sony DADC. While the name Sony DADC was adopted to include both entities as one division, the mission, vision and pledge of the company required the definition of positive compromise.

Redefining Sony
“When Sony Disc Manufacturing merged with our sister company in Austria, Sony DADC, our intent was to approach the market globally rather than regionally,” explained Shelley Klingerman, Marketing Director for Sony DADC. “We had the buy-in from management to begin revamping our corporate mission, vision and pledge, that was the first step for the North American group.”

The unified Sony DADC borrowed the look and feel of the Austrian group’s website and the North American division set out to work with MillerWhite on brainstorming the new mission, vision and pledge through the Unlocking The Power of Your Pledge® formula.

“We decided to get the whole group involved for approval and buy-in to what we were trying to accomplish.” Klingerman said. “Everybody has such different personal tastes, we had to step back away from personal opinions and consider which of the three or four options best directed the new approach. Everyone had a hand in the final decision. That way everyone could be proud of the result.”

With the freedom and trust of upper management, Sony DADC created a new pledge to their customers that was adopted by both the North American and Austrian divisions. The new tagline, “Your partner in dreaming, developing and delivering a global solution,” and the new pledge soon appeared on the corporate website and made its way into all of the marketing materials, advertisements and eMails sent out by both divisions. The shift in culture unified the sister operation, gave employees ownership of the corporate direction and streamlined the efforts at both locations.

“In our situation, the changes have cut workload significantly because we agreed to work together rather than separately. By employing the same culture changes through tagline, pledge and vision, and blending our efforts, we have experienced a decrease in workload and in duplication of efforts,” shared Klingerman.

Positive results
Both Sony DADC and HPS Office Systems are progressing to embrace the cultures that they have each identified for success. Both have found positive results translating into improved revenues from a dedication to this integrated marketing approach. As a culture is developed that places the necessity of change squarely on the shoulders of the entire company, the weight of improved customer service, the development of new streams of revenue, and the achievement of established business goals becomes a burden that is easily managed by everyone working together toward planned, systematic and deliberate success. And everyone in the company can sound their unified Harrumph!

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