Customer Service: How Can it Improve? The Recap

First of all, thank you to the guest bloggers!  Jon, Bren, Rosa, Terry, Rosemary and Dave gave us all great examples and stories to better look and analyze this issue.

I think overall, all of us can come up with more examples of bad customer service vs. good (ie. human nature).

Jon's post brought up 4 problems and solutions.  I tend to agree and would say in a very broad sense, most companies have plans for good customer service, but poor tactics to implement the plan.  Communication all the way to hourly cash register employee and "buy-in" is needed.  As Jon, would say, push the right button!  Or, put incentives in for all to share in measurable goals.

Bren's post to me was the manifesto of a new book (come on Bren, you have it in you!).  Using the Beatitudes is a wonderful example of serving.  Serving the customer, serving the company and ultimately, serving ourselves. 

Rosa's post segues this servant discussion perfectly.  Think about it.  If all of us dropped "Customer Service" from our language and inserted "Hospitality" in its place, I believe it all would be much clearer from the start.

Terry's example specifically lays out a plan for each of us to implement.  He describes spending time at Fellowship Church as an experience; from the moment you pull into the parking lot until the time you leave.  Sounds like a good starting point for all businesses.

Rosemary and Dave give us touching examples of service and hospitality.  All of us need a "Jim's" at our companies and Dave challenges each of us by sharing an internal manifesto to live by.

I believe that if each of us is an example of service and hospitality in our own job and life, the cast can be set for everyone.  Yes, this is an very simplistic way to view this problem, but what function or process at your company do you control?  Whatever it is, be the best.  Be an example of hospitality. 

Serve.

 

Comments

[Rosa]

Aloha Todd,
Your last link caused me to remember this, from Robert Greenleaf:
“Good leaders must first become good servants.”
Being pressed into service takes on new meaning when we do it willingly, does it not?

And as was attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
“Everyone has the power for greatness – not fame, but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.”

Mahalo to you for the hospitality you extended to all of us in the past week. A hui hou --Rosa