The Truth About Customer Service

Customer Service - we talk about it endlessly. We write stacks of business books and articles on it. We all stress its importance to bottom lines. Almost every CEO presents themselves as strong advocates of remarkable customer service. Every company tells the world how much their customers are number one. Most of us have our favorite stories about some idiotic customer service rep somewhere and certain ridiculous mistreatments as if we would have done better. Yet very few of us actually want to be in Customer Service. While most of us grew up aspiring to save the world, to be a doctor, to run our down business or to be fighter pilots, very few of us aspire to be Customer Service Reps. We all have our ideas as to what we call outstanding customer service, but it's always someone else's jobs.

Customer Service is an entry level position in a lot of companies, largely staffed by the unskilled and often regarded as such not only by their customers but by also their colleagues in other "real" departments. Some companies outsource it all together to some other parts of the world. What message does that give to their clients and to the people working in these companies? People believe in what you do, and not in what you say.

Customer Service is a universal obsession and not merely a separate department in truly great companies. It's EVERYONE's job, regardless of which station they are at. We get paid to service clients. It matters not that whether we are in Accounting, Marketing, Sales or Human Resources, we exist as a business only if we have customers. Customers pay us and no one else does - THAT is the bottomline.

What is the basic rule to good Customer Service? It's the Golden Rule, common to all major religions - treat your customers as you want to be treated yourself. Now if you can then see the world as your customer sees it and go one step further to help her out, we are starting to talk about remarkable customer service. Why should everyone do this? Customers pay us.