What is customer service?

It seems to me that customer service has become very complicated and I’m not sure that, at its most basic level, it needs to be.

Great customer service is experienced when two people connect. It is far les about the “organisation” and the customer and more about the “person” representing the organisation.

The attitude and prefessionalism of the individual representing the organisation is aboslutely paramount. If everything else is wrong, then the experience can still be fantastic IF the individual chooses to make it so.

Where empathy is demonstrated and people make a choice to be helpful, to engage and to smile this connection has a far greater chance of happening, and the customer is left feeling as though they’ve had a great experience.Take a few experiences over the Christmas and New Year period.

1 – I went into a store, “Paul Simon”. The guy that I asked for help seemed genuinely interested. He stopped what he was doing, made eye contact with me, listened to my requirements and helped me avoid making a bad purchasing decision that would have left me out of pocket by about £120.00 He recommended a better alternative for my needs and I left happy.

I went back to “Paul Simon” as a result of my good experience the following day with my wife. We walked into the store to find the entire staff of 6 or 7 people (minus the individual I had met previously who I now assume was the store manager) deep in conversation in the centre of the store. Nobody acknowledged our arrival or made any attempt to look as though they were interested in our arrival in the store. After walking around the store for 15 minutes unaided and being rudely looked up and down when we politely asked two members of the said group to move in order that we could look at some of the store’s products, we left…and spent our money elsewhere.

Previous good work undone by a second less enjoyable experience.

2 – Visiting H&M with my wife and children on New Year’s Day I bought a shirt and two t-shirsts. The guy on the till made this brief interaction unpleasant. No eye contact, no conversation other than “put your card in the machine” and “your receipt is in the bag” and no interest in me at all.

You have my money H&M, but not my loyalty!

3 – Final destination of the new year’s day expedition was Debenhams. My 6 year old daughter lost a toy kangaroo that had earlier that day travelled all the way from Australia with a family friend. Tears and frustration vented I pulled myself together and we re-traced our steps unsuccessfully. We left and went for coffee before returning to look at a couple of items again. As we walked through the store a young lady came down the escalator and noticed the Koala bear my other daughter was clutching in her hand. She stopped us and asked if we had happened to mislay a similar toy as she had found a kangaroo earlier on…she didn’t have to do this but she chose to and as a result my daughter and said kangaroo were reunited amidst much tears and laughter…I pulled myself together and we thanked our animal rescuer heartily.

Get your recruitment right, attitude and desire on the money and develop empathy and the rest is far easier.

How is your organisation doing when it comes to customer service?

Could you?

Brian Tracy states that most people vastly overestimate what can be achieved in 1 year and significantly underestimate what can be achieved in 5 years.

So at the start of 2010 what could you achieve in the next 5 years?

Could you be debt free?

Could you have saved 100 third world orphans from poverty and put them in school?

Could you have mentored that annoying graduate who joined your company in the last intake and helped him fulfil his potential as one of the finest leaders your company ever recruited?

If you could do that in 5 years…what could you do in 10?

Now that you’ve thought about what you could do the question is will you?

Download and read Seth Godin’s inspirational e book for more ideas

Sumo – the sport of the future…

at least it will be the sport of the future if the diet doesn’t work out!

A funy one today for those that know me personally at least…the rest of you should at least either raise a smile as I fly through the air or fall over very quickly.

the story of “stuff”

I got sent this thought provoking video about 6 months ago and just came across it again.  I love it for many reasons

1 – We have to think about this stuff even though it may cause us to have to take action

2 – It’s a fantastic example of the use of story and visual communication to get a message across

3 – The whole point is to empower YOU and ME to do something, to get involved andhost a screening, share it with others or just read some more…

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Make yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy.

After you’ve watched it ask yourself…what am I going to do?

What’s the point?

The more organised amongst us may have sat down last night and written out there “To Do” list for the morning.  Others will have gone home with a vague idea of what they were going to do this morning and still more will be arriving at their desks this morning with a sense of surprise and exhilaration as various jobs pop into their minds throughout the morning (some no doubt rocket propelled in their arrival by managers and peers!).

Whichever camp you may find yourself in take a moment at the start of the day to ask yourself whose agenda the completion of your tasks are meeting.  Are you merely working towards the satsfaction of ticking off all the jobs on your list?  Does completing everything mean that you have another day under your bosses radar and free from the stress of your value being questioned!  Or is it something greater?  Are you systematically working towards achieving some specific short or long term objective?

If you know what your purpose is – if you truly understand what gets you out of bed in the morning, into the office and stuck into your work – then work can really become fulfilling.

So ask yourself this morning, “What’s the point of all I do  and why am I doing it?”

Over the next few posts I’ll share some thoughts on purpose and vision and how we can “live life on purpose”.

People are talking…is there truth in what they’re saying?

Earlier this week the Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Chris Moyles started discussing church.  This was unusual on two counts.

1  – Chris normally discusses things he’s done and places he’s been

2 – Chris normally finds the humour in these things and (sometimes mercilessly) ridcules them

On this occassion he did neither.  You can listen below whilst you read on.

This church is not that unusual in the UK.  Evangelical & charismatic churches now exist in nearly every town of substantial size but relatively few people encounter them (there are many reasons for this both good and bad). The dusty churches with uncomfortable pews are slowly but surely being consigned to history.

What’s interesting about this is that the majority of people believe that they know what goes on in church and what it means to be a Christian.  This is because they been to weddings/christenings/funerals or possibly tried church a long time ago and have taken this experience to be representative of everything that happens all the time.

The thing is that people who in the past have had an ordinary or bad experience with you or your organisation think that they know you too, and they’re still talking about their last experience.

Isn’t it time to re-engage with them and bring them up to date?

Be the crazy guy

Ever wondered how a “movement” gets started? How a church grows, a political party gains momentum or a business attracts loyalty? Seth Godin posted a fascinating video yesterday that visually illustrates the birth of a movement.

Shot at a music festival on someone’s mobile phone it shows one guy out there doing what he feels passionately about and dancing his socks off.  He doesn’t particularly seem to care that nobody else is out there with him.

When somebody else decides what he’s doing looks like fun it becomes socially acceptable for others to join in and the unstoppable force that is momentum kicks in.  Pretty soon you can see people racing across the field to be part of this new and exciting thing that is happening.  By the end of the video he’s surrounded by people who’ve rallied to his movement…

If you want to start something you’ve got to have the courage to get out and stay out until the others arrive.

Seth makes a plea for more “guy number 3′s”, the individuals that tip a couple of people that look kinda fun but a bit weird into a movemement.

Me – I’m calling for more guy number 1′s – the crazy guys who don’t only get out there and start dancing, but are prepared to keep going until guy number 3 shows up.

Be the crazy guy.