Key Point: many organizations have great marketing spin about “customer care,” loving their customers, blah, blah, blah. It cannot happen in a sustainable way if people in organizations don’t treat each other that way first. Are you real or just another phony bologna part of the big BS and marketing spin in your company?
Customers do not care about what department people work in. In the extreme case, do you think the passengers desperate to get off the sinking Costa Concordia cruise ship (off the west coast of Italy) cared if they were being helped by customer service, engineering, or catering? Of course not. Products and services flow across departments and positions, and end up in the hands and heart of the customer. However, the entire customer experience will not be consistently and sustainably great without every person and process in the chain inside an organization working together. The point is – we have to sincerely care for each other first before we can achieve exceptional customer service. It takes huge amounts of personal energy and commitment.
Character Move:
- Great customer care starts with you. Are you working in a tight link with your team in a way where you deeply care about each other and your respective processes?
- It starts with what you do and how you do it. Depending on your position or role, you will have more or less power to influence your entire company culture.
- And it starts by really listening and getting to know the people on your “left and right” and building from there. One day the customer experience crosses over from inconsistent offerings and marketing spin to real customers shouting out (through social media) about how great you are.
Together in the Triangle,
Lorne