I can’t think of a better way to start a new business year than focusing on the bedrock of customer relations – how we treat our clients from the get-go, from the first “hello”. The term “Customer Service” has been abused to the point of becoming a cliche, and that’s really a shame. Remember, the vast majority of lost business and employee turnover whether it be they don’t buy again, call again, darken our doors again, or resign is due to how a person perceives they’ve been treated. Note that it’s not actually how we treated them but how they perceive we treated them! In this case, perception is everything. Consider the incredible investments made in facilities, infrastructure, human resources, inventory, and marketing, yet improving how people perceive they’ve been treated is not just the most important thing we can accomplish but, amazingly, the least expensive to accomplish.
One way to improve their perception is by looking within and improving what’s been described as our “service heart”. It is essential we create a balance between the head and the heart. Lamar University professor Jim Seratt put it best when he said, “All head, we dry up. All heart, we burn up”! So, in an effort to strike a balance between a business head and a service heart consider the following: We can create the most spectacular flimflam show in the known world and, yes, it will produce results. But in spite of continued, massive investments in capital and energy, it will never produce the long term, smooth-rolling results of actually caring about people. I say, “smooth-rolling” results because when a client or employee perceives they’ve been treated fairly we expend far less energy and resources having to go back and “fix things”. The brilliance of Walt Disney became obvious when he said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends”. Now, think about that for a moment. Beyond the obvious reference to return business, Disney revealed a foundational truth about success: the value of creating a “connection” with a client, and a connection so strong not only will they want to do business with us again, but they will go out of their way to tell other people about what they’ve experienced. (Be warned that works both ways, and a sorry experience can motivate them to share it with complete strangers in the grocery store line. And with the development of the world wide internet, that grocery store line can circle the globe faster than a minnow can swim a dipper!)
Going one step deeper than Disney, consider the brilliance of, perhaps, the most important strategic thinker since Sun Tzu, the late Col. John Boyd. Boyd’s foundational premise for “winning” was, “The concept of grand strategy involves creating a vision so stirring, so noble, so attractive that it not only attracts the uncommitted and magnifies the spirit and strength of its adherents, but also undermines the dedication and determination of any competitors or adversaries.” Just chew on that for a moment: “A
vision so noble” that it not only “attracts and magnifies” its adherents, but also “undermines the dedication and determination” of any competitors. Accomplishing that is the ultimate win/win.
As we start a new business year, let’s ponder our vision and consider whether or not it is “so noble”. Whether it be our internal customers and staff or our external customers, when they become “wowed” with how we treat them, problems diminish, profit
soars, loyalty becomes solidified, and the ship of state charts through smooth seas. And our ability to “wow” them is in direct proportion to the nobility of our vision. Without a noble vision of service our greatest intentions and mission statements “become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”, for the nobility of a vision lies in its ability to magnify strength and spirit while at the same time discouraging everything hollow and counterfeit. There can be no stronger foundation both personally or professionally than one predicated on a vision of serving others to the extent that their sails become full and the sails of our competitors languish in the Horse Latitudes.
Originally published in Beaumont Business Journal, Heat And Humanity Column
