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Legendary service organizations have a service mindset, commitment, and reward great performance.
Why Most Customer Service Isn’t as Good as It Could (or Should) Be and What You Can Do About It
“We need to improve our customer service. Get someone in here for an afternoon to fix these people.”
“We’re busy. I may be able to spare a couple of people for a few hours. Beyond that, we don’t have time for training.”
“I don’t get it. I send them to training with an expert consultant, and they seem as if they’re learning something. Then, after a few days, it’s back to the same old stuff. I want to scream.”
Too often, organizations recognize they have a service issue, yet their efforts to address shortcomings fail to solve the problem. In the worst cases, customer service initiatives backfire and motivate people to do less.
So, what’s going on? Usually, a few things.
Typically, there’s an organizational mindset misalignment, a lack of commitment from the top, an absence of recognition for giving great service, or a combination of all three.
In contrast, legendary service organizations have a service mindset, commitment, and reward great performance.
Great service companies eat, sleep, and breathe extraordinary service. They don’t pull people off the phones for a few hours and expect magic.
Great service companies involve everyone in their service culture and improvement efforts. They invest in their employees and trust them to do what’s right.
Great service companies reward service-centric behavior. They don’t ignore great work or punish people for taking initiative.
When thinking about everything that the greats do, it’s easy to get discouraged or think your business or department will never achieve true service success. The good news is that you’re wrong. While it won’t happen overnight, you can take a page or two from the masters to elevate your approach.
None of these steps is necessarily hard to take; the trick is to take them. In other words, to win the service game, you’ve got to be in it. What will you do better today?
About the Author: Kate Zabriskie is the president of Business Training Works, Inc., a Maryland-based talent development firm. She and her team help businesses establish customer service strategies and train their people to live up to what’s promised. For more info, visit Businesstrainingworks.com.
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