To Serve IS to Lead
The true ‘spirit’ of customer service
Edward Deming the quality Guru after whom the most prestigious quality award in Japan
is named after once stated;
“Quality at the end of the day is a human commitment”
What he was not indicating was that you do not need a quality process, but that the best
processes comes after the initial true personal desire and belief to pursue quality as a
person and not just as an organisation.
It starts from ‘inside out’ unlike processes which if not owned are ‘outside in’.
It starts with you.
Customer service is no different.
You cannot truly serve anyone as a person (or service), unless you are in balance and
have a strong foundation of caring values on which to ‘see’ the world.
This therefore simply extends to any organisation – as an organisation is simply a bigger
and more complex organism than an individual with all our own thoughts and beliefs
multiplied many times over.
The individual ‘body’ and the organisational ‘body’ require to be aligned and coherent.
The well body and the well organisation are also very closely linked as we have seen
from various studies around absenteeism and sickness and how people feel about their
workplace.
If customer care is to be that ‘inside out’ paradigm (how we see things) then the spirit of
excellent customer care has to come from the heart of that individual who is ‘serving’.
We all know when we receive service that is below par – we ‘feel’ it.
We feel that the person or organisation is not truly attending to us and nothing anyone
can say will change what we ‘feel’.
WE know that they may even be delivering the stated process; the outcome however does
not connect to us the customer.
In effect the ‘spirit’ of customer care is missing from the experience.
At Corporate Heart we have carried out various surveys to establish the overall wellness
of organisations and what they show is that …………………….
So like a person each organisation has physical (PQ), intellectual (IQ), emotional (EQ)
and spiritual (SQ) aspects of its nature. In Stephen Covey’s language it is to live (PQ), to
learn (IQ), to love (EQ) to leave a legacy (SQ).
So the ‘sprit’ of customer care is to leave that legacy – that feel good factor.
Each of us I’m sure will be able to remember the last time we were treated as we would
like and you will for sure remember the best experiences of customer care you have
received.
So what is the ‘spirit’ of each interaction?
Brain Tracy wrote a wonderful book on ‘The Power of Intention’.
In short it is the intention we initiate any action from that determines its outcome.
If we start with that ‘inside out’ belief of customer service then even with a poor
‘process’ the outcome will be a good one as our heart is open and loving to attend to that
person in front of us.
This is likely to be the type of person who upsets their bosses in a call centre by having
that human interaction to ‘connect’ and not just the written script to perform.
In fact is it just about the human connections that we make as we go through our daily
lives?
Think of your own home – do you really want to listen to what your family are telling
you? If not they WILL feel it – just as you have felt it.
You must enter into the dialogue with the intent to ‘listen without colour’. To listen as the
person states it and without trying to finish it for them if you think you ‘know’ the result
– whose result?
At this point I cannot but help think of nurses and the ever more challenging role they
carry out.
As we now know from David ‘It’s the thought that counts’ the level of healing through
placebo is very high. It is often not the medicine that heals but the belief that we WILL
heal that is the key to wellness.
If the nurse has the time to truly ‘serve’ you – you feel warm, maybe even loved and thus
the climate that is created for your healing is healing in itself.
If the nurse however gives the impression of simply being there to administer your
medication – you have to believe simply in the chemicals – something which is losing its
‘power’ in present day health as alternative medicine simply grows and grows.
Now relate this to the workplace.
Plenty of IQ processes to ensure the ‘right’ things are done – but with what care or dare I
say ‘love’!
How man organisations start with focussing on customer care to the internal customer
and what that feels like to those expected to carry out the job?
Meg Wheatley in her new book ‘Finding Our Way’ highlights how when organisations
(usually public) become so disenchanted that they ‘work to rule’ as they often cannot go
on strike – the organisation often grinds to a halt as it can only operate through human
will and relationships (EQ) and not IQ processes.
So have we in business gone the same way as the health service (the sickness service as
the only time we go is when we are sick) to focus too much on the ‘chemicals’ and not
enough on the spirit of service or care?
What was our intention, to give the medication (due to time, financial constraints and
charters) or to make the patient well?
It used to be said that the basis of all care is love.
Interestingly enough Kevin Roberts the world wide CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi wrote in
his book Lovemarks “intellect brings conclusions and emotion brings s action”.
His view is clear that customer care is about creating what is beyond trademarks –
lovemarks. This is where the customer service experience is so good that the customer
will rarely if ever look elsewhere for that ‘product or service’.
They have been ‘loved’ so much, that as in any strong human relationship, there is no
need to look elsewhere.
Is it any wonder that business language is beginning to switch over to softer words which
are needless to say the harder things to do in today’s often short term, money focussed
time limited economy.
Economic growth is now being questioned as a root to wellness – as depression, stress
and suicide rates climb – surely we must balance those economic aspects with human
ones?
Intellectually there is little that can be learned these days that is unique, what with the
internet et al.
So what IS that unique differential for your service or customer?
It must be the only one that can be truly unique – the human one!
And you know what – those companies that have got it right and placed people before
profit and have created great places to work are also reaping the financial rewards of
doing so.
To create the true paradox – which means focus on your people (internal customer) and
they will focus on your customer (external) brings sustainable profits.
If you doubt this – take a look at The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies To Work
For (March 2006) where the research shows that from 2000 until 2005 they outperformed
the FTSE 100 by 12.4% year on year compound profits.
What does that state – well I believe that it clearly shows that;
 if your initial intent is to create a great place to work you attract better employees
 attract better employees and you already have the climate of care
 this then deals with effectiveness and not simply economy and efficiency
 that if they feel good then their (your) customers feel good
 Absenteeism and sickness are low
 Employee attrition is minimal
And many more
Overall a wellness map would clearly show that the four quotients (PQ, IQ, EQ and SQ)
will be in balance.
It is true to say you can buy their backs but not their brains – you can buy their hands but
not their hearts – when will organisations realise that unless you serve the internal
customer they will rarely serve the external customer.
W L Gore the Sunday Times Best Company To Work For 2004, 2005 and 2006 (the only
company to win twice let alone three times) was started by Bill Gore in the late fifties
based on a set of values that were about creating a great place to work with a mission of
‘to make money and have fun’.
All Gore employees are associates (no hierarchy) – it is a matrix organisation – associates
are employed by other associates as much based on attitude and they all take on personal
commitments.
Invariably you do not deal with companies, you deal with people.
Customer service is about people and less about process
So, as with the title, to lead is to serve – we influence people with our intent.
Southwest Airlines are the most successful airline the world – highest profitability,
highest return on investment, lowest staff turnover and a safety record second to none.
Their CEO Herb Kelleher stated “Your employees come first. There’s no question about
that. If your employees are satisfied and happy and dedicated and inspired by what they
are doing, then they make customers happy and they come back. And that makes your
shareholders happy. Don’t worry about profit. Profit is a by product.”
So with all this evidence – why is it that organisations still pursue the ‘safer’ route of
more and more processes to ensure that employees do the right thing?
Why is it that we trust the systems more than the people?
Why is it that we pursue IIP, EFQM, JIT, Lean Manufacturing, ISO 9000 et al to improve
our business?
We in Corporate Heart believe that it is because we are still seeing things in isolation
(independent) and ‘out there’ and not interdependent and ‘in here’.
As Ghandi stated ‘You must be the change you want to see in the world”
It does not start with your internal customers it starts with YOU.
What is your intent?
Is it to earn lots of money, to have power or ???
The leader of the organisation creates that culture.
Sick cultures usually have sick leaders
How is your body?
How are your relationships and happiness?
How is your spirit?
What will be your legacy?
Check out the Sunday Times Top 100 – they are the future of business as they are
sustainable as people want to work there.
As the population bubble diminishes – will your organisation be an organisation of
choice as talented young people become more and more particular about what they do
and who they do it with?
“The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference
manifests itself in the care taken by the servant to make sure that other people’s
highest priorities are being served. The best test and difficult to administer, is: Do those
saved grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? Robert Greenleaf