Customer Service Is a Two Way Street

Customer Service No Longer Is a Department

Most of us still think of Customer Service as being a part of the Marketing or Sales departments in our organizations. We then wonder why our clients aren't happy with the service we provide them.

If you're the owner or head of an organization, you don't even have to think about the issue of customer service as it becomes as part of your DNA as you move up the ladder. But sadly, the balance of your team may not be so far sighted. Most people haven't realized that customer service is actually a mentality or an attitude, and it better be evenly distributed around the organization. (This is great news for us because it keeps our clients asking for more training!)

When customer service actually becomes recognized as a mind set, there will be no more Customer Service departments in companies, or they will be called something like "After Sales Service."

The Squeaky Wheel Isn't Always the One that Gets Oiled

When my son was younger, I was very concerned about his success in school. He somehow took the opinion that his learning in school was his teacher's responsibility, not his. He felt that if he didn't learn, it wasn't his problem – it was his teacher's. As a result, he took great pride in being a very naughty student.

Without success I tried to convince my son that teachers will give him much more attention and tutoring if he was polite, friendly and sent the message to them that he actually did want to learn. My urgings continuously fell on deaf ears.

I still think of how much better education my son would have received if he didn't take the attitude that his teacher was his servant. What a terrible loss this experience has been for my son.

Back to the Future

We recently had a client who took a similar approach. The organization was an internationally known company with a nice footprint in the local economy. From the moment our agreement was signed, this client decided to throw their muscle around. They were rude, abrupt and tried to push for far more than we agreed to. I tried to reason with them, and this seemed to signal to them that we were a weak organization and they could push us even harder. The principal this client was using was that since we were the vendor and they were the client, it was our responsibility to bend over backwards.

The day the training took place, staff came into the training room with their laptops and their mobiles and used them incessantly. My mind drifted back to my son who felt that the entire responsibility for learning was up to his teacher. At the end of the day, my son learned very little. I was able to predict how this client would feel about our training.

Unbeknownst to this one client, we also had another customer who probably represented a smaller future earning potential. Both clients paid the same fee, but logic dictated that I should have given better service to the one with higher earning potential to our company. The case couldn't have been more different. The client with the smaller training budget was so appreciative of everything we did. We spent far more time servicing this client than the pushy client – merely because it felt better to do so. The pushy client felt that it was within their rights to boss us around, and it may well have been. We met every single promise, and every expectation of this client. But for the appreciative client, we really went overboard to make them happy.

I guess that what it all boils down to is the way you view the relationship. If being treated like some variation of "customer" is your goal, then this is what you'll get. But if you'd rather be treated like a "partner" then you'll have to realize that we're all only human and service is more of a two way street.