These are great charming words aren’t they?!
So many people use them so freely, indiscriminately and loosely. They are harmless and full of “stating the obvious”–wonderful adjectives in describing one’s focus on customers, service and people. But too many people and organizations just pay lip-service to the idea of greatness in service delivery.
Avoid this trap. By stating something that is not necessarily and absolutely there, you may be insuring the loss of customers, the loss of employee and team respect and the loss of reputation. Customers are wising up folks!! They know how to sort through the rhetoric. These words can work against us if we use them without proving them to customers, employees and the greater industry we live in.
Not too many companies can fake good service. Certainly the “one trick pony” will spill the beans on you. If you cannot repeat consistent good service, your customers, users and employees will become disenchanted quickly. The effect of empty rhetoric is devastating to an organization or a department or a business.
I recently heard some very refreshing and honest words from the CEO of a company: “When it comes to customer service we are not EXCELLENT yet. We are trying, but not there yet!!” I asked him if he says this to everyone including customers. He said “Yes!!” He said at first he was very leery of saying it to customers and outsiders. But he was surprised at the response and the admiration for the honesty of striving to become excellent. He told me a customer told him, “I know you mean it because you are not selling me. This means you really are paying attention to what kind of customer service you are going to provide to me”. Customers are getting very smart and sophisticated about service.
By: Guest Blogger, Bob Hobbi, President of ServiceElements International, as published in ServiceElements News
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