Becky Carroll, author of "The Hidden Power of Your Customers", posted this on Twitter today:
I agree wholeheartedly. We are all in the business of service. It doesn't matter who you are or what your position is. Even if you have an information technology degree and work by yourself in a corner cubicle, you eventually have to deal with other people. You could be taking CFA prep classes and work from home. It doesn't matter because what you will be doing is offering some type of service. This means that you will be interacting with people at one point or another - whether it's on the phone, via email, or through social networking.
I've always said that there should be more customer service classes taught in universities or it should be mandatory that students take a psychology class. In many business classes we are often taught about business being a numbers game and how to market a business, but we are never thought about the human side of business, like how to make that personal connection. I believe that when you see people for who they are versus being just another customers, that's when a business can truly be successful.
When I was a manager for a national retail chain, I remember constantly stressing over our sales goals. I was also bombarded with projects, making sure my sales people were following the company's "10 steps to customer service", and all those other managerial responsibilities. Despite all of these duties, I still went above and beyond the call of duty and never used the "It's not in my job description" excuse to get out of doing something. I wanted the business to be successful and I wanted the sales people to have the support so that they could have fun at work and be successful too.
Forget about what your "job description" says. Remain open to the opportunities to help in any way that you can - whether it's being of service to a fellow co-worker or helping a customer solve a problem or find the answer to a question. Even if you can't help a customer directly, you could be a guide to helping them discover the resolution or answer. So when it's time for you to get some help, then it will be someone else's turn to return the favor.
Should it be the responsibility of every employee to take care of customers in some way? What do you think?
