What kind of relationship should the customer service team have with the rest of the company?
Creation Date : Jan 13, 2010 11:51 AM | Modification Date : Jan 13, 2010 11:51 AM
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: Feb 1, 2010 4:41 PM
byJay Forte
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I have a little broader perspective than just the focus on a customer service team. Here are two thoughts.
FIrst, a customer-focused workplace must first be an employee-focused workplace. The right, engaged, passionate and fired up employees are capable of providing an extraordinary customer service response. Without the right employees, the focus on customers is lip service. Build an employee-focused culture to inspire extraordinary customer service.
Next, realize that extraordinary service (customer loyalty focus) must be a core value of the organization. All employees have a service role, either directly or indirectly. That means the organizations must always talk about how what it does will impact customers, service and loyalty. There must always be "customer representation" in all decisions made in the organization, since the impact on customers must always be considered. This means all employees are "customer service employees."
I used to work for an organization that made decisions almost exclusively in their corporate office - without the input of either customers or those passionate employees who can speak for the impact and effect on customers. Many decisions were made that only made sense for the company - and as you can imagine, had to change when they negatively impacted customers. Customers felt ignored and returned the favor by changing suppliers.
There must always be "customer representation" in all decisions - whether they are by specific customer service employees, or better, that the organization is always customer-focused, one where all employees continually review the impact of their decisions on the customer. Today's workplace requires that virtually every employee is a "customer service employee." You can see that an employee will have to be engaged and passionate about service to continually consider the impact on the customer in their decisions.
Jay Forte
Jay is the president of Humanetrics, a financial executive and a corporate educator who now advises organizations on how to recruit and retain the best employees. He is a frequent speaker and author of "Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition" (2009) and the online resource, "Stand Out and Get Hired" (2009). Keep up with Jay's blog at Live Fired UP! Or check out his Power Performance articles on Bizmore, in which he offers his insight to todays workplace and increasing employee productivity.
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Yeah, that's what I meant! 
Great info Jay!!
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Jacqueline -
It comes from the mindset of the organization's leadership. Here are a few examples of those who do it well (though most of the best ones you never hear about because they have easily incorporated it into their culture and live it without fanfare): my favorite - Wegmans (Central NY State Food chain). Others include, Pfizer, certain divisions of GE, General Mills,Google, certain locations of California Pizza Kitchen, UPS...and a host of famous ones. Here are some not so famous ones: Natural Chemisty, Imperial Point Podiatry, Starbucks on Davie Blvd In Ft Lauderdale....the point is the best companies - those who are tremendously successful, without regard to industry, are those who first create a team of engaged employees, then share a vision of exceptional service.
I was speaking this week for an association of swimming pool and spa dealers. I spoke of the need for organizations to get out of the "average" mentality and move to a commitment of excellence (okay, I used "extraordinary"). Another speaker cautioned me of trying to raise the expectations too high - that good was frequently good enough. I obviously disagreed with him - and cited many of the best above as examples of organizations who understand that in a competitive workplace, the best results happen when the team is talented, the vision is clear and the focus is on extraordinary. And again, for this to happen, requires a committed and strong leadership team to establish these attributes as their attributes of success.
I see it happen all the time; actually, I look for it. And the best places to see it in action are the local places that consistently out-perform others. So I see it is possible in organizations with managements that focus on excellence and are committed to their people. When that is in place, then all of the workplace's attention can be directed to the customer.
Jay
Jay Forte
Jay is the president of Humanetrics, a financial executive and a corporate educator who now advises organizations on how to recruit and retain the best employees. He is a frequent speaker and author of "Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition" (2009) and the online resource, "Stand Out and Get Hired" (2009). Keep up with Jay's blog at Live Fired UP! Or check out his Power Performance articles on Bizmore, in which he offers his insight to todays workplace and increasing employee productivity.
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I hear you - and I see what you see. This keeps me committed to finding organizations who know they want better but are looking find out how to achieve it, and to speak to organizations who don't know they could have better until someone lets them know. So I keep raising the bar, hoping to encourage better performance and more "extraordinary" through the world. It will catch on. Thanks for the chat.
Jay
Jay Forte
Jay is the president of Humanetrics, a financial executive and a corporate educator who now advises organizations on how to recruit and retain the best employees. He is a frequent speaker and author of "Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition" (2009) and the online resource, "Stand Out and Get Hired" (2009). Keep up with Jay's blog at Live Fired UP! Or check out his Power Performance articles on Bizmore, in which he offers his insight to todays workplace and increasing employee productivity.
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