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2 Ways to Create Uncommon Customer Service

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Deliver customer service

This week is customer service week!  In honor of the big week I introduced a 3-part mini-series of blog posts:

  • The first focused on the external customer and asked the question, “Can great customer service be taught…  To anyone?”
  • The second focused on the internal customer and emphasized how organizational growth is limited or unleashed when employees interact with each other.

Today’s post is about two thoughts that spark my creative fire.  Two separate thoughts from different sources that consistently make my cells jump up and down, Thoughts that make me dream of building uncommon solutions with others that are bigger and better than I could ever imagine on my own…

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The Enemy Within: Internal Customer Service Impacts Growth

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A shared vision impacts teamwork, service and growth

This is the second post in a three part series about customer service.  The first post asked the question, “Can great customer service be taught to anyone?”

This post examines the need for people at every level of an organization to share a vision and view each other as their customer:

  • Have you ever needed something from a co-worker in order to do your job but encountered red-tape or bad attitudes?
  • Have you ever gone in search of answers about data that was required for a critical report only to be passed from person to person and from department to department, finding that no one would provide a straight answer let alone take ownership?
  • Have you ever sat through a meeting where it was more important to point fingers and place blame than it was to look for solutions?
  • Has your organization ever laid anyone off because it wasn’t generating enough revenue, and you know that you know, that you know; that the biggest challenges they are facing weren’t created “out there”  it was created by the silos, politics and turf wars within the organization?
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Can Great Customer Service Be Taught? …To Anyone?

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It’s customer service week!!!

Last year I participated in a #PeopleSkills Tweet Chat.  At one point in our chat we were debating if Customer Service could be taught.

I KNOW that it can! As a high school student I worked a retail job after school.  I’ve always cared about people so I was polite and helpful but I’m not sure that I was remarkable.  In hindsight, I am also very thankful that this first experience was in a small town where we all knew each other – as I result I never dealt with an angry customer.

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Has life ever handed you one of those weeks?

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Have you ever had one of those weeks?

A week filled with news like this:

  • One more friend is diagnosed with cancer while others are in the midst of the battle
  • Several friends say their last goodbyes to loved ones that have left the earth
  • One more marriage is on the rocks
  • One more job loss
  • Another horrible diagnosis

While the world is focused on:

  • Terrorists
  • War
  • Refugees
  • Ugly politics

Have you ever felt shaken AND stirred?  Where the pain in the world becomes so loud it hurts?  This week was one of those weeks.

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Growth Doesn’t Just Happen and 5 Tips for Changing that on a Budget!

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I’m currently reading John Maxwell’s new book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.  One of those laws is:  “Growth doesn’t just happen.”

One of the points that John makes is that you have to be intentional and willing to invest in your growth. (With both your time and with your finances.)  He tells a story of wanting to take an expensive leadership development course early in his career and having to save for months in order to do so.

[Tweet “It’s hard to improve when you have no one but yourself to follow. John Maxwell”]

His point reminded me of something a former employee said to me years after we worked together.  He said that he has never worked for anyone else that has been so invested growing themselves and others.  The beauty of the comment is that even when the budget for training dried up and blew away, the people I served still received great training.

Below are five tips for fueling your fire and theirs on a really tight budget…