Can a culture built on compliance ever deliver a remarkable Customer Experience? Some organizations still believe it can.
This article is part of our Quality Management Series — practical guidance on designing, managing, and improving Quality in Customer Service and Contact Centers.
This article is also part of our Customer Experience Hub and our Customer Service Series.
A Culture of Compliance
In these environments, the rules dominate: say this, wear that, follow the script exactly.
Success is defined by ticking boxes — and when all the boxes are ticked, the assumption is that quality and experience have been achieved.
Compliance behaviors have their place.
But when compliance becomes the dominant management lens, Customer Experience suffers.
Compliance = Hygiene
Most compliance standards are hygiene factors — they are expected.
A greeting is expected. A clean room is expected. Privacy protections are expected.
When these things are done well, Customers barely notice. But when they’re missing, they immediately feel something is wrong.
A doorman opening the door at a hotel isn’t a “wow” moment — for a certain type of posh hotel, it simply meets expectations.
You’d only notice if the doorman was standing there but didn’t open the door for you.
In compliance-driven environments, management systems are often built to catch mistakes rather than develop people.
Employees Can Tell You About Compliance
For Employees who work in compliance-heavy environments, not following the instructions to the letter can make work life pretty miserable.
One of our training participants worked as a Concierge in an exclusive shopping center.
He shared that every morning, before the shopping center opened, their Boss would line them up, drill sergeant style, and critique aspects of their grooming.
He said that the comments were always negative.
And think of the emotional and mental headspace of these Concierges as they begin their shift.
They don’t begin their day energized by a positive team huddle. They begin their day with fear and a sense of being diminished.
A Training Client Had This Job-To-Be-Done
We were invited to present to senior leaders at a high-end casino.
They had a training job-to-be-done for the service staff assigned to accompany the casino’s high-end VIP Guests — their literal high rollers.
The challenge was that these people lacked the confidence and skills to have appropriate conversations with the VIP Guests.
Casino leadership had learned this from VIP Guest feedback.
Some Guests commented that the staff accompanying them were either monosyllabic or overly formal.
In the meeting, leaders focused a lot of attention on one VIP Guest comment, bringing it up multiple times.
This Guest had written:
“Your staff spent more time looking at their shoes than they did in seeing how they could be of help to me.”
We Studied the Situation
Yes, hiring the right profile of service staff for this role matters.
But so does how you design and describe their job. And then how you teach and coach the Team Member so that they can succeed in that job.
From our work with ultra-luxury brands, we know that interacting with high-end Customers requires more advanced communication skills.
So I looked at the current performance standards applied to their service people, as well as some of the training content they used to teach communication skills.
What I found was neither unexpected nor unusual.
There was a heavy focus on compliance behaviors.
- Use polite words
- Smile and greet the Guest warmly
- Ask the Guest if they want coffee or tea
These yes-or-no tick-box behaviors sat at the heart of how service staff were supposed to serve their Guests.
In their training materials, where they shared the company’s vision and brand values, the content was so vague and aspirational that nobody could figure out how to connect it to their daily work.
It’s tempting for leaders and managers to blame individuals.
But systems thinking teaches you to look at the systems and culture in which individuals operate first.
And identify ways to improve the system, so people can improve too.
Shift from a Culture of Compliance to a Culture of Connection
To improve the experience for VIP Guests, this casino didn’t need more rules.
It needed a greater focus on behaviors that create connection, such as:
- Listening
- Empathy
- Learning to read the situation
- Warmth — or other behaviors that bring the brand values to life
Behaviors and abilities like these aren’t about whether something was done or not — they’re about how well it was done.
Of course, you have to select the right mix of behaviors. And define them clearly and well.
Compliance matters.
But compliance alone doesn’t create a remarkable Customer Experience.
Customers may notice when the basics go wrong. But what they remember about a great experience is how you made them feel.
And that feeling is created not through rules alone — but through connection.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience.
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Daniel Ord
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www.omnitouchinternational.com
