When writing a new book entitled Contagious Customer Service, it never ceases to amaze me the plethora of examples that one can gather about the state of customer service in most places these days. Whether it is over the phone or in person, merchants seem to be too busy to assist, to short on patience to listen, or too caught up in the bottom line and "NEXT" mentality to take the time to treat each customer as an individual special contributing member of their balance sheet. Has it become a lost art to actualy give a darn about your customers or is it only at the highest markup of establishments that one should expect to be treated well, mainly because one is paying though the nose?
The bigger question is why to we accept it? Why do we say "okay, I'll come back" when a merchant is obviously frenetic working on another customer's deadline, but has legitimately and accidently overcharged you by $6000? Why do we tolerate rude phone service folks and raise our own blood pressure followed by a request for a supervisor? Why do we do it? What if we just didn't do business with those who didn't treat us the way we expected to be treated? what if we lowered our expectations? Why should we have to? I have seen clerks at 7/11 pay more attention to a friendly service level than some of the service vendors I utilize - not all mind you, but some. And then there is my friendly neighborhood Kinko's (www.fedexkinkos.com) in which I can go in any day or night and get a greeting and most of the time it's by name. (I'm in there a few times a week)There is the woman on the phone with Bank of America who bent over bankwards to assist me with an erroneous charge and then there is the rep at the large phone company that sounds like Squint that makes the life of the woman who runs my office a living nightmare because of their constant system issues, lack of customer focus and lack of interest in changing apparently.
It's a mixed bag and part of it is why we do so much Customer Service training and business, but at what point do we all throw our hands in air and cry out for something a little better than "what do you want?"
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
What is Leadership?
Recently, I read a training curriculum that defined leading as:
"Using rapport to achieve the results that you want."
While I found it an interesting definition, it also seemed to lead one to believe (no pun intended) that leadership is about making connections, building rapport, and forging relationships with others. That does seem to be key in all leadership, doesn't. Unless you have become a leader by accident, meaning you have been promoted without being given the skills to actually lead others, you have the duty to make a connection with others as soon as you assume the posistion. If you have been promoted into leadership because you are one of the last ones left, the only one who wanted the job, or the one who has been there the longest, then your primary duty is to learn as quickly as possible how to lead people, while also striving to make a connection with those you have been given the privilege of leading.
Learning the job and making the connection - that will enable you to build trust and rapport - not to mention - quite a following.
"Using rapport to achieve the results that you want."
While I found it an interesting definition, it also seemed to lead one to believe (no pun intended) that leadership is about making connections, building rapport, and forging relationships with others. That does seem to be key in all leadership, doesn't. Unless you have become a leader by accident, meaning you have been promoted without being given the skills to actually lead others, you have the duty to make a connection with others as soon as you assume the posistion. If you have been promoted into leadership because you are one of the last ones left, the only one who wanted the job, or the one who has been there the longest, then your primary duty is to learn as quickly as possible how to lead people, while also striving to make a connection with those you have been given the privilege of leading.
Learning the job and making the connection - that will enable you to build trust and rapport - not to mention - quite a following.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Push or Pull Leadership
It has been said that a true leader is lifted up by those following the leader. Are you being lifted up or are you pulling all those you have the privilege of leading along? If you rose through the ranks in an organization, chances are you were lifted up by those you interacted with and made an impression on. If you landed in a new leadership role with no previous experience in that culture, chances are you were lifted up by those in other companies or other positions to have the skills and knowledge you needed to land this new role.
If what you are doing is pulling others into your following, you may not be leading with the right skills and knowledge. The key is to insprire, motivate, lead, guide, and direct others in a way that focuses on their own personal and professional development. This focus will likely gain you the "lift up" that you are looking for. Any other focus, will keep you in a position of pulling others along with you, which is somewhat like trying to push water - highly ineffective.
If what you are doing is pulling others into your following, you may not be leading with the right skills and knowledge. The key is to insprire, motivate, lead, guide, and direct others in a way that focuses on their own personal and professional development. This focus will likely gain you the "lift up" that you are looking for. Any other focus, will keep you in a position of pulling others along with you, which is somewhat like trying to push water - highly ineffective.
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