Our culture: The attitude we bring to work
We define “culture” as knowing what you need to do when you get up in the morning without having to be told what to do. Culture is the attitude we bring to work every day — the pattern of thinking and acting with the customer in mind. It’s not just doing the right things, it’s doing things right. Respecting differences. Respecting deadlines. Listening to each other. Keeping promises. Returning phone calls and e-mails as promptly as we can. Being on time for meetings.
Our success has as much to do with attitude as aptitude — what’s in our hearts, not just our heads. Our success depends on how much our brand partners and associates care for their customers, for each other, their community and our stockholders.
People commit themselves to other people, not organizations. In hiring, we really don’t care how much a person knows until we know how much they care. The attitude of our people, their commitment to the customer, their colleagues, their communities and stockholders is the most important difference between a great company and a good one.
Enthusiasm and caring enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things. When we do this, we want to have fun, too — because success without fun never lasts, and fun without success isn’t much fun. “Fun” for us means enjoying our work, enjoying the people we work with, enjoying the difference we make in the lives of our brand partners, customers and communities, and celebrating our achievements together as a team.
Our culture
Every time we serve a customer, we should ask ourselves: If I were the customer in this situation how would this experience feel for me? Did the interaction feel simple and easy? Did my problem get resolved quickly? Did the person I contacted first accept responsibility for making sure I got what I needed? Customers want to do business with companies they connect with emotionally, that speak their language, are sensitive to their culture, value what they value, and help them succeed. To make that emotional connection, we must put our customers at the center of everything we do.
Every associate has one thing in common. We all work for the customer. Every day, our customers say to us “Know me. Know who I am. Know what I need. Don’t ask me the same questions over and over about my information that you already have. Don’t transfer me to someone else who might do the same thing.” They say, “Understand me. Understand what I want to accomplish, understand my goals.”
Our brand partners say “Appreciate me and all the business I bring you. Treat me like a friend. Thank me. Reward me. Everything we need to know about a brand partner must be available easily, accurately.
Our culture: “wow!”
Our attitude is to “wow!” our customers. We know what that feels like because we’re all customers. When a customer gets help from one of our team members or does transactions online, we want them to say “That was great. I can’t wait to tell someone.” We want every customer to say, “I didn’t know I could get service like that. She made a difference. He solved a problem and helped me understand how I can achieve my goals. I learned something new.
“Wow!” is as simple as a warm smile, or the friendly, helpful team members who responds quickly and effectively to a customer’s question over the phone. We’re only as good as our first impression and last connection.
We believe there are 11 attributes of service that make our customers say wow! We call them our 11 Ways to Wow!
- You make me feel at home.
- You care about me.
- You make me feel special.
- You give me the right information.
- You provide me value.
- You keep your promises.
- You help me when I really need it.
- You know me.
- When you make a mistake, you make things even better.
- You thank me.
- You reach out to me.
Our culture: frugality
All of us know what it’s like to manage a budget at home. We pay the bills. We keep a close eye on expenses. We want to get the most for our hard-earned money. No one likes to find out they could’ve bought the same thing for much less somewhere else.
It’s the same at Healthient—with one big difference: We’re spending money that doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to our shareholders. So we have to be even more disciplined in managing our company’s expenses without sacrificing our ability to earn more of our customers’ business and grow revenue. There's a difference between frugal and just being cheap. A frugal person knows how to save and spend wisely. We’re making expense management a competitive advantage. It’s good for us, good for our brand partners, good for our customers, and good for our community. It’s good for the people who entrust us with their money—our shareholders.
Culture first, size second
There are only three ways a company can grow. First, earn more business from your current customers. Second, attract customers from your competitors. Or third, buy another company. If you can’t do the first — earn more business from your current customers — what makes you think you can earn more business from your competitors’ customers or from customers you’d buy through an acquisition? You have to show you can grow revenue first. That’s called organic growth. You can’t buy your way to greatness. You have to earn it from your current customers.
