Tight times a test for rah-rah firms

High-loyalty cultures also tend to be cyclical, says Shoshana Zuboff, coauthor of "The Support Economy: Why Corporations are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism."

They're particularly difficult to achieve in publicly held companies responsible to Wall Street - and they're difficult to sustain, she says.

For one thing, they depend on the personality of the leadership group. When a leader leaves or is forced out of the company, the culture can be jeopardized. These cultures also rely on incentives that tie employees into the performance of the company, such as stock. When an industry falters and stock prices plummet, the culture may also suffer.

People's Express airline was one of the early companies to use its family culture and loyalty to compete, Ms. Zuboff points out. Initially, the culture proved healthy and productive. It contributed to the employees' emotional well-being and to the company's performance and profitability. But "the culture hit a wall when the growth hit a wall," she adds.

Problems can also arise when incentives, which are linked to stock and stock prices, fall and employees are asked to work longer hours, Zuboff says. She cites Continental, United, and Delta, all of which "ricocheted from one end of the pendulum to the other."

Consistently high-performing companies continue to recognize employees through good and bad times, says Ann Rhoades, president of People Ink, a human-resources consulting company in Scottsdale, Ariz. That's how they survive, she says, "and probably exceed expectations" in difficult times.

During Desert Storm, for example, Southwest continued its recognition programs for employees. The company remained committed to motivating its employees, she says, so it could maintain its customer base and keep the customers happy. "Employees become part of the solution rather than part of the problem," she says.

Many companies cut training programs and staff during crisis periods, however, which is shortsighted, says Ms. Rhoades, because it tends to trigger a vicious cycle: Service declines and customers become dissatisfied, making the firm a less enjoyable place to work and hurting the quality of service even more.

At Commerce, the bank's philosophy is "to grow the company by servicing the sneakers off the customers," according to Dennis DiFlorio, executive vice president and chief retail officer. [Editor's note: The original version of this story misreported a bank officer's name and gave him a correct, but incomplete, title.]

With its WOW! department, WOW! patrol, WOW! van and WOW! Awards at Radio City, the bank is committed to recognizing - and rewarding - employees for providing exceptional customer service. Rather than penalize employees for making mistakes, Commerce attempts to "catch" people for doing things right.

"When you're in the service industry, you can't service your employees enough," says Chas Hermann, senior vice president of marketing. "The tone you send to the employee is transmitted to the customer."

But cultivating this culture isn't easy. "You can't convert it, acquire it, or wave a magic wand and create it," says Mr. DiFlorio. "They just don't sell that kind of pixie dust to make people become service-oriented. This is a result of a lot of people with a lot of passion and energy to get it to where it is."

For a company like Commerce, fostering a we-are-family sort of culture distinguishes it from larger banks such as Citibank and Morgan Stanley, Biggart comments. "It becomes a way of saying: 'We're different.' "

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