Developing a customer-oriented organizational culture requires long-term commitment. The cultural change will probably occur so slowly that it may go unnoticed. In fact, unless there is a great deal of visibility for the effort, many employees will fail to recognize the changes. 

Therefore the organization's senior management must provide clear, directive leadership to promote a customer service effort, just as they would any improvement effort. They must provide long-term commitment and demonstrate their support for a service strategy in order for it to be more than just sentiment.

A customer service strategy is a formal plan that defines how an organization intends to fulfill its customers' needs and expectations. It is an overt attempt to manage the customers' perceptual reality (image) of the organization's products or services.