I have had great customer service experiences at organizations and not so great experiences from other organizations. These experiences have ranged from great purchasing experiences to awful hold times with the worst elevator music ever composed. I have had IT people who walked me through the complete inner workings of their phones and helped me with my purchase, and I have been treated as if I was a burden on the representative that had to take another call during their shift.
People tend to tell everyone they know about how great an experience was as well as how awful an organization is to deal with. There is a lot riding on customer service and if our organizations are not careful, we will lose out on a great deal of opportunities in the future. Here’s the thing though…everyone in the organization is actually working in customer service. That’s right it does not matter the position. When we interact with customers, we are essentially working in customer service.
It does not matter if we are the CEO, a sales person, an engineer, a call center employee, or a janitor. We are ambassadors for the organizations we represent. We have the opportunity to build up or tear down the reputation of our organization by how we treat others. We need to keep that in mind when we are sporting our organization’s name, at events, and even what we post on social media.
It also does not matter if we are not a paid, or not. When people see us representing an organization, they are making the association no matter our affiliation. People will make their perceptions about the organization based on the people they interact with.
I have had people in organizations tell me they don’t care if a customer likes it or not because they don’t have to interact with the customer regularly. It’s frankly, not their job. Unfortunately, what these individuals don’t understand is that the customer is buying products / services that are in turn funding their paycheck. Make enough customers stop buying from our organization and then we are all looking for other employment.
When the customer has a bad experience, social media allows them to send their experience all over the world in a matter of seconds. Organizations do not have the ability to respond to every negative comment on all of the social media platforms. There is just too much area to cover, but we can make sure we do our part and give the customer a great experience each and every time we interact with them.
No one is above customer service. We are all serving customers. Whether we like it or not, our organizations are judged by our actions. Keep that in mind when you are wearing your organization’s logo, or at an event for your organization. Make the interaction a positive one. Be courteous, helpful, gracious, and humble. Go the extra mile to help someone even if they are not buying from you right then and there. Your organization’s reputation and your paycheck actually do depend on it.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”