Sam Walton once stated, “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” So simply stated, but so easily forgotten. You would think with today’s economy being as it is, people would have stepped up their game in customer service, but you don’t have to go far to see people in the workplace who seem to care less about serving those who pay their salaries. From what I’ve seen as of late, people have just about forgotten what it means to be attentive, to actually serve customers, and to get over themselves long enough to truly catch the spirit of serving others.
How long has it been since you have truly seen a service employee actually attentive to you as their customer? We have all been there – checking out at the supermarket and the cashier and co-workers are discussing personal subjects and they barely pause to notice you, even when they ask you to pay. How many times have you heard employees openly complain that they have been on their feet all day, haven’t had lunch, a break, etc.? Do they really think we want to hear that? And better yet, do their supervisors and owners realize it is going on or do they care? Yes, there are those establishments that seem to have these things figured out, but try to think – how many times lately from the front door through shopping, eating, etc. through checkout have you truly encountered superior customer service from every person you encountered in a particular place of business? It comes over as a stark reminder just how bad customer service really is when you are overwhelmed when someone actually asks you how you are, if they can help you, and goes the extra mile to make sure your customer experience is above ordinary.
Enough of my grousing and complaining – that’s getting us nowhere. As leaders, business owners, and managers, we have to somehow get ourselves and our employees outside of themselves and get them focused on serving the customer, or as Sam Walton put it – we’ll all be fired. How do we get ourselves and employees to catch the vision of the benefits of excellent customer service?
First, we have to instill a general liking for people in our organizations. This is really a no-brainer, but are we filling our positions with people who are intelligent, have good work records, but have no level of compassion, common courtesy, and general respect for others? I have found that someone who hasn’t been raised with the common “please, thank-you, yes ma’am, no ma’am” habits in their life will find it difficult to learn them as an adult. These employees who have not grown up utilizing these common kind phrases will not truly see their value and will not see how much they can mean to a customer or client. Trying to train them to use them is usually futile. We need to hold out for those employees who naturally value people.
Next, we all need to just “get over” ourselves. As different as we all can be – colors, sizes, nationalities, cultures, we all as a general population have much of the same stresses, desire the same things, and need the attention and empathy from other people. We need to be treated kindly by others. When we and our employees allow our moods and stresses to affect how we are treating customers, we are doing the customers a huge disservice. We need to look past our personal needs and stresses and realize that others are looking to us for help, assistance, respect, and service. We all select our moods and temperament just as we select the clothes we put on each day. Our mood is a choice. One of the co-benefits of treating others well is that we will be see our moods change when we get outside ourselves and serve others.
Finally, have fun with it. Make trying to outdo each other in customer service a contest, a sport, a chance to try to one-up each other in our workplaces. Make a decision to create a WOW moment of some type in every interface with each customer in your day. I read of an employer who made up tickets for each employee to give their co-workers when they observed them exhibit great customer service. At the end of each month, the employee with the most tickets got a half day off with pay. Creatively find a way to please that most difficult of persons, find a way to perform your job in your best, happiest frame of mind, and continue to treat others just as we all want to be treated.
Of course, you will invariably come across that person who can’t be made happy, who wouldn’t like the color of their goose if it laid golden eggs, that person who is looking for a fight in everything they do. In those cases, we need to stick to our course and be ourselves no matter who they are being. We need to continue to serve every one of our customers, not because they all are good to us, but because we are good people. Henry Ford said of good service, “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.”