Where Outstanding Customer Service Starts

We live in an age where it's not enough just to set up shop and open a business and expect people to come flocking through our doors. Maybe there was a time when you could just find a town that didn't have an appliance store, go there, and open up an appliance store, and you'd be guaranteed some business. But today, when people are willing to drive long distances to shop at outlet malls or order things online or get things from complete strangers through the classifieds or Craigslist, you've got to have something going for you if you want customers to buy from you.

If you ask 10 businesses what the key to their success is, chances are the majority of them will say, it's their great customer service. And chances are, in the majority of cases, that's complete hogwash. Oh, sure, they talk about customer service, and customer service comes up in the annual employee performance reviews, but if all the companies who said they were about customer service really provided the level of customer service they claimed to, wouldn't our day-to-day experiences be a little different? Maybe even dramatically different?

So how do you go about institutionalizing good customer service? Do you just do some customer service training with the employees? Maybe some role playing games to help the employees see things from the customer's point of view?

Maybe customer service training and role plays would help, but there's an even bigger factor that can make a bigger difference: You have to model good customer service for them.

Sometimes this can be done in front of your employees, with actual customers. However, as managers, sometimes we don't have as many opportunities for customer interaction as our employees do. How can we model customer service if the employees never see us with the customers?

The answer: By seeing our employees as our customers, and meeting their needs as well as we want them to meet the needs of our customers.

Think about it:

When an employee comes to you with a problem or concern, how quick are you to act on it? Do you make it seem like it's a big deal to you, or do you ask them to, "Email me about it when I'm not so busy?"

When an employee has an issue that you or the company have no way of dealing with, do you dismiss it flippantly, or do you make the employee feel like you wish you could help in spite of your limitations, and maybe suggest some other alternatives?

When they come to you, do you smile and act happy to see them, or do you seem frazzled and busy, like you don't have time for them?

Often, these actions on the part of management set the tone for the actions that employees take down the line. It is far harder for employees to spontaneously spring forth a helpful, courteous attitude towards our customers out of themselves each day, than it is for them to pass along a helpful, courteous attitude that's flowing to them from all corners of the organization.

For this reason, it's actually helpful to provide customer service training to all parts of the organization. Your IT department or payroll department might not talk to your customers, but they are talking to your employees. In some cases, they're the people at the home office your field teams are talking with the most. Their customer service skills should be some of the best in your organization, if you recognize their opportunity to set an example for the rest of the company.

It is a service minded organization that creates truly service minded front line people.