Imagine gathering your employees into a room, handing each of them an index card, and asking one simple question: “What’s the most important quality we offer our customers?”
No discussion or collaboration. Just write down one word.
What do you think you would get back? Would everyone write the same answer? Or would you find a stack of cards that say separate things like quality, convenience, value, speed, trust, and service?
Customer service expert Shep Hyken recently challenged businesses to define the problem they solve in a single word. It’s an exercise in clarity, forcing organizations to think less about the products or services they sell and more about the outcome customers are actually buying.
That’s a worthwhile exercise for leadership. We’d like to suggest a companion exercise for everyone else.
Ask every employee to describe the single most important quality your business delivers to customers. It’s a simple question, but it raises an even more interesting one: Does your entire team see your business the same way?
One Word Guides Thousands of Decisions
Hyken argues that customers aren’t really buying products or services. They’re buying the elimination of a problem. Once you’ve identified that problem, the next step is deciding how your business solves it.
Maybe your defining quality is convenience. Then every decision should make doing business with you easier. If it’s trust, transparency and follow-through should be evident in every customer interaction. Or if it’s expertise, your employees should continually develop their knowledge and confidence.
Whatever word you choose, it becomes more than a marketing slogan. It becomes a standard for hiring, training, policies, and everyday decisions. It gives employees a shared understanding of what customers should consistently experience every time they do business with you.
The Real Test Is Whether Everyone Agrees
Leadership usually has a clear vision of what the company stands for. The question is whether that vision has made its way to the front lines.
So, if you asked fifty employees to answer that one-word question independently, would you receive fifty versions of the same idea? Or twenty completely different answers? Those answers matter because customers don’t experience your mission statement. They experience your employees.
When different employees have different ideas about what matters most, the customer experience naturally becomes inconsistent. One employee prioritizes speed while another focuses on relationship building. One bends over backward to solve a problem, while another simply follows policy. None of them is necessarily wrong. They’re just working from different definitions of success.
Over time, those small differences shape how customers perceive your business.
Don’t Assume Alignment. Measure It.
Many businesses regularly ask customers for feedback. That’s an important part of understanding the customer experience. But how often do they ask their own employees questions like these?
- If you had to describe our business in one word, what would it be?
- What quality do you believe customers value most about doing business with us?
- What should every customer consistently experience when they interact with our company?
The answers can be surprisingly revealing.
When employees consistently describe your business in similar ways, it’s a good sign that your culture, training, and communication are working together. If the responses are scattered, you’ve identified an opportunity to strengthen alignment before those differences begin affecting customers.
Employee feedback surveys aren’t just about measuring engagement or job satisfaction. They’re an opportunity to find out whether employees share the same vision of what your company stands for—and whether they’re equipped to deliver that promise consistently.
When everyone is pulling in the same direction, customers notice.
Is Your Team Telling the Same Story?
Choosing the right word is only the beginning. The real challenge is making sure every employee understands it and delivers on that promise every day.
At The Brandt Group, we’ve spent more than 30 years helping businesses create more consistent customer experiences. Along with our mystery shopping services, our employee feedback surveys provide valuable insight into how your team views your mission, your customers, and your business. If you’d like to learn whether your employees are telling the same story your customers are hearing, contact The Brandt Group today. Together, we’ll help you build stronger alignment, better customer experiences, and lasting customer loyalty.
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