I am fortunate to have met someone who also loves to observe great customer service. Duchess and I have spent a lot of time watching the actions of someone, either helping us or someone else, that exemplified our collective definition of a great customer service provider.
In fact, I have learned from my fiancee Duchess, to always take the time to recognize anyone that gives you exceptional service. I have often seen her ask for the manager or supervisor of the person that "went the extra mile" to make people happy in a service situation. Duchess is one of those people who actually find the time to write to companies to make sure that the powers-that-be also recognize an employee who gave her a reason for continuing to do business with their organization; whether it was the Starbucks' barrista, the waitress, the Apple Computer Store IT specialist, or someone she spoke to on the phone about a problem she was having with their billing, or any other product related aspect. Do Duchess' efforts to have someone recognized as a provider of great customer service really influence a company to strive to continue to provide this kind of positive service? Does good customer service actually show up on the company bottom line?
Stanford Research Institute and Harvard University have determined that business success is 85% people skills and only 15% technical knowledge (New Straits, 2003). This would seem to suggest that most customers’ needs cannot be satisfied by technical brilliance alone. Communications skills, a customer service mentality, and knowledge of business strategies and issues must be an important accompaniment to technical skills in the development of a customer service professional. Customers seek to do business with value-producing companies. Only organizations that develop symmetry in its relationships with customers can be value producing entities.
It is the strong feeling of this blogger that if corporate leaders gather information from internal and external customers and employees, and use the new found truths to the betterment of the organization, needed change in the poor customer service reputation of their organizations can occur. When individuals interact on an ongoing basis and collectively reflect on the results of their actions, organizational learning can take place, followed by needed change. Having people like the Duchess Dale's of the world who give companies feedback on the quality of their service should be worth a fortune to a company that is serious about succeeding in business.
“Real leaders empathize fiercely with their followers and care intensely about their people’s work. They’re also empathetically ‘tough’. This means giving people not necessarily what they want, but what they need to achieve their best” (Goffee & Jones, 2000, ¶ 9). Every organization continually must ask themselves if they could improve, not only in customer service, but in overall processes.
Do you think one person can affect the financial success of the company for which they work? Let me know some instances in which you have gone back to an establishment, or continued to do business in other ways, because of one person's customer service efforts. I look forward to your comments.
Be Inspired! - DJC
Don Converse
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2 comments:
yeah, customer can make a difference for me as to my choices in a store. But how do you get that concept out into the mainstream?
I laugh that there is a tip jar at Starbucks. Why should they get a tip for ringing up your order when no one tips the clerk at the grocery store.
It seems like you either have stellar custom service as exemplified by Nordstrom; or you have zombies at Subway.
When or if someone takes the time to write up a service comment -- I wonder along with you if it really makes a difference to the company OR to the service they provide.
Dear rat2,
Nice choice of tags!? I wholeheartly agree with the tip jar comment, however, I was once at a Starbucks in LA where the Starbucks employee was so engaging and displayed such concern for Duchess and I, I just had to leave him a tip.
I have never been to a Subway that had enthusiastic employees. Has anyone else? I love their product, but the energy when you walk into one of their establishments leave a great deal to be desired.
It would behove the Subway Corporation to establish a "People Skills" training program similar to the one that turned Von's grocery stores in to one of the great customer experiences I regularly witness. I rarely walk down an aisle in a Vons store without an employee either saying "hello" or asking if I have found "everything I was looking for".
And as for acknowledging a company's good service from one of their employees; my experience as a customer service director for a major corporation tells me that we should all continue to do this. I think a company will notice sooner or later. Whether they take action will be a matter of choice for their executive leaders.
Thanks - DJC
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