Customer service: where is the love?

heart or love icons and hand as tree - concept vector. This graphic also represents harmony & peace spreading love empathy and compassion
Customer Service – it’s all about the love

I met an amazing group of women last weekend. It was just a social ladies afternoon tea for a dozen or so like-minded women. We didn’t all know each other previously, so it was a chance to meet new people and sit on the deck of a gorgeous house and chat. We mostly work in different areas –  though there were a few of us communication and marketing types – and we are all at different stages of our lives, so there were lots of different stories to share. Some things we found common ground on were: guys just don’t get chicks; good friends are often the only thing that get you through the tough times; and that true, genuine customer care is so very rare. Oh – and that Allie makes amazing macaroons. But I digress …

The customer service thing really struck a chord with us all. Most members of the group are in a position in our daily lives where we are service providers,  be it to external or internal customers. Or both. And of course, everyone is the recipient of customer service – we’re all customers at one time or another. So we were all very passionate about the topic. We shared stories about amazing customer service we’d personally received in the past. There were even a couple of great experiences shared about fantastic clients. Interestingly, the client stories were sequels to earlier tales of customer service provided on our own part, at our expense – almost a karma thing.

Mostly we marvelled about why we rarely receive it. And why it seems so exceptional when we do. Why don’t we get good customer service as a matter of course? To us, it seems so easy – it’s about empathy. And not settling for anything less than you’d want for yourself. It’s about asking the right questions so you understand what you customer really wants – to ‘get where they’re coming from’. It’s about putting yourself in the shoes – getting inside the head – of your customer, taking care of their needs, and if they don’t get what they want – you make it right. It’s about honesty and transparency. It’s also about giving a little bit more than expected.

At the end of the day, giving good customer service is about being a decent human being. Treating others as you wish to be treated yourself. It’s all about the love.

What’s so hard about that?

5 Comments

  1. The Go-Givers – a great little read and has 5 laws:
    1. the law of value – your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.

    2. law of compensation – your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.

    3. the law of influence – your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.

    4. law of authenticity – the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself

    5. law of receptivity – the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

    Sorry for copying these laws verbatim but i’m short on time, but I think they speak volumes for Customer Service – as a service provider, it’s not about US it’s about THEM!!

    Bren x

  2. Thank you for your article on this. I agree great customer service is all about empathy and love. True empathy and love begin within ourselves. If we keep the focus there then there is no effort required to treat others the same, it is just a natural out-flowing of our true selves. Better yet its been my experience the more I focus within on myself, the more I attract customers that are also empathetic and loving. Communication goes to a whole new level where great things are achieved in very simple ways.

  3. I absolutely LOVED reading your blog. It’s everything I think, teach, share and blog. It’s about doing unto others, and being able to sleep soundly at night knowing you’ve given the best you can give and treated others only as you want to be treated. With courtesy, care, love and respect.

    SO well said – more people need to read this sort of stuff and take it on board. My motto: “The best way to make yourself feel good is to make someone else feel even better”.

    Thank you for a great blog…

    Big Al

  4. As I was reading this, I was thinking that good customer service and good social media ettiquette are really one and the same thing.

    Great customer service, actually CARING about your customers/ stakeholders and their experiences, is so rare these days that ‘merely’ giving a crap, makes you a winner.

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