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It's Only Common Sense: Customer Service Starts at the Top

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading..It's certainly true that good customer service can be taught. But what I’d like to add is that great customer service has to come from the top. It must be inspired by company leaders.

I was reading the all-new edition of Chip Bell’s and Ron Zemke’s great book, Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service, when I came across the section dealing with leadership-inspired customer service. The advice offered by the authors should be passed on to all of us.

These guys maintain that all great customer service is planned, not accidental. It is not an act of sudden grace toward a customer, but a permitted, nay inspired, graceful atmosphere that is part of a company’s culture. Great customer service involves inspiring employees to do the right thing no matter what it takes--even breaking out of "the way we always do things.”From the book: Great customer service typically involves breaking patterns and abandoning “the way we’ve always done it.” To get service creativity, it’s important to affirm appropriate risk taking, not foolhardy recklessness, but employees who couple service with stewardship; taking care of the customers while taking care of the organization.In other words, we have to let our people do what is right for the customer at the right time and place. We have to show employees that we trust their judgment to do the right thing for the customer while, at the same time, making sure what they do is good for the company. Think about that for a minute and then ask yourself if this is the way it's done in your organization. Do you allow employees to do the right thing for the customer? Do you encourage this kind of behaviour? Do you reward such actions? Or, do you punish employees by telling them such measures are too much for the customer and not enough for the company? Which is it?

How do you react when one of your customer service reps comes to you with a situation where you've hurt a customer? How do you react when the customer service rep tells you that your company made a mistake, but, by golly, this customer is just too difficult to deal with? What do you do? Do you clap along as he goes into his little anti-customer dance or do you explain to him that the customer is right and that what you and your company did was wrong whether or not that customer is, in fact, difficult? Or, better yet, do you take the opportunity to turn this into an extremely valuable--not to mention powerful--teaching moment and pick up the phone, call the customer, hear him out, and make it right? I hope you call the customer and show, nay inspire, your customer service rep to do it your way--the right way--the next time.

Again, from the book:

Great service is a handmade surprise tailored to the receiver. Its power to attract and retain customers lies in its capacity to make customers feel they have been bestowed a valuable expression that honors the very nobility of service. Its originality and imagination telegraph an innate commitment to excellence. Great service requires incentives with a creative twist. However, the goal is not an incentive that simply affirms; it is one that channels energy and directs practices that result in customer loyalty.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, matters as much as great customer service. Great customer service can turn an angry customer into a satisfied customer. Great customer service can turn a customer who is leaving into one who us staying…for life.

The way you handle a serious customer problem will show, more than anything else, what your company is all about, what your company’s values are, and what your company’s culture is. But, be warned: This is a very sharp, double-edged sword. If you handle the serious problem with all of the care and ingenuity you can muster you will not only save the account, but you will also strengthen that direct relationship and foster others as well.

Let me explain. People love good stories, and customers, in particular, love good stories. Customers especially love good stories that end well. If you can take a bad story (the more disastrous the better) and turn it into a great success story, I can assure you that the customer will tell everyone he knows. I can also guarantee that it will become part of your own company’s cultural lore as well. That being said, your customer will love you and keep you around for a long time; anyone who hears his story will want to work with you, and your own team will use the story as an example of how to handle a customer in a dire situation.

It all leads to one simple fact: Great customer service is the most powerful tool in your toolbox. Used correctly, it will create a very successful company. It’s only common sense.