Culture can be defined as the way we do things and see things around us.  The way we do things is determined by values and beliefs we shared in common with people brought up in the same community.  These values are reflected in business practices.  For example: Do people pay more attention to what you say or to what you write? Can you do business with someone without building a good relationship with that person?  When people from different cultures work together they bring with them different expectations on how things should be done. Problems are often caused by those expectations.

The good news is that there are no good ways or bad ways of doing things, just different approaches. 70% of problems encountered in business (as in most relationships!) are not real problems but problems in communication. You need to understand how your clients and suppliers see and do business and recognise that their processes may be different from yours.  Unfortunately there isn’t a single global formula to deal with a global market.  You need to be culturally aware of the differences depending on the markets you are targeting.

You may believe that you will succeed because your product is good. You will present it professionally, with clear specifications, good prices, competent marketing and good distribution. You may be following the so called Anglo-Saxon business model as it is done in Northern Europe, USA, Canada and Australia.   However, there are other communities – Southern Europe, Russia, Latin-America, China and Japan among them – where you mainly do business with people you trust. Building a personal relationship is absolutely critical in these geographies so try and adapt your communication and relationship-building style in order to match your client’s expectations.

Cultural exporting tips

•    Do your homework. Get as much information about the country as you can.
•    Think about language implications.  Have your product or service brochure in the local language. Learn some of the language.
•    Research cultural culture differences. Some differences are easier to understand than others.  Protocol: business cards, greetings, degree of formality in business relationships.
•    If you are dealing with a country where relationships are important then give yourself time to get to know your customers. Don’t over-cram your visits with meetings – make time to socialise and view it as a part of the business process.
•    If you are using English as a means of communication then keep it simple.  Remember that other people have made an effort to learn it and it may not be their first language.

Follow these five points and avoid making a cultural faux pas that may damage your business.

This article was written by Aurora Longo who is a Spanish language and international culture expert. She is the author of two best-selling BBC books on the subject.

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As strange as Paris Syndrome may seem, I thought this also illustrates different cultural attitudes to customer centricity. As much as I love France, as a frequent visitor I am no longer surprised at the almost total absence of what I perceive as good customer service.  So how very customer-centric, I thought, of the Japanese embassy to respond in a pre-emptive way to Japanese visitors to Paris.

The perennial problem with gathering customer experience is what to do with it.  You can use it tactically, as the Japanese embassy have done, and respond to particular issues that were highlighted.  And you can use customer experience strategically and look at what the whole experience is telling you and implement holistic changes to the structure, process and people – the whole value proposition.

Customer experience is one of the new business buzzwords, a bit like value proposition. Everyone wants to know what their customer experience is, but once captured (and it should be captured on a regular basis, not once!), few people know how to use it, other than implement a few tactical changes.  The Value Proposition Builder™ is a holistic framework that takes you step-by-step through how to create your value proposition from your customer experience.

So the next time the Japanese embassy get a call from a distressed tourist on their hotline, I was thinking about offering to help them create a value proposition for Japanese tourists visiting Paris.  My ‘flu has clearly been giving me delusions of grandeur, so I’ll just send them a copy of the book instead…once it’s been translated into Japanese, of course.

Cindy

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