I was recently speaking with someone about the people in their organization and how to increase the drive to deliver excellent service.
The discussion revolved around two main issues that are relevant in ANY organization –
1) Customer Service and Satisfaction is a trickle down effect starting with the CEO and management that is a leadership by example phenomenon. It’s is crucial that leadership set the standards and the expectations as to how customers are going to be treated and what the minimum expectations are in any customer interaction. As Lisa Ford said in a recent conversation I had with her – “Without service standards, everything else is left to chance.”
By clearly laying out the expectations as to what the customers can expect, then everyone is aware of what their role is to make that happen.
2) Hiring right is going to make or break your service standards. Once you’ve hired the people who have the desired mindset on how to treat the customers, the rest is simple. If you have people in your organization that groan when the subject of treating customers right comes up, you have some people that are toxic to your customers. The customer needs the top priority of everyone within your organization. Without your customers, you won’t even be in business. This is a philosophy that Zappos.com wholeheartedly embraces.
These two points really deserve so much more attention than this short post, but we’ll go into both of these soon in some of the upcoming videos under production.
In the meantime, treat your customers well and they’ll reward you by keeping their money and loyalty with you.