Cutomer Service

World Class Customer Service:

While talking to a coworker I realized great things come from listening. The 7 Habits of highly effective people has a habit that states "seek first to understand then be understood". Being open to listen and learn, the following questions came up.

1. What do we have to do to become a world class customer service Organization?
2. What is your corporate objective in regards to customer service?
3. Can you honestly say that if you were to ask your work team members they know what the corporate objective is?
4. What is leaderships roll when it comes to the objective?

A world class team is focuses on a clear Objective not personal recognition. All world class teams have world class leadership. How can you tell if a leadership is world class? This is a very easy question to answer. Now in all Caps for emphasis " A WORLD CLASS TEAM ALWAYS FOCUSES ON THE CLEAR OBJECTIVE NOT PERSONAL RECOGNITION"! This goes for the team as well as the team leaders. This was revealed to me at young age but I did not have the wisdom truly understand it. Christ thought his follower in simplistic but eloquent ways, which in itself is a principle. Principles govern everything regardless if we choose to believe it or not.

The by-product of action taken is recognition. Recognition is defined as The acknowledgement of achievement, service or merit. Service, achievement and merit are things that come from action. So what action needs to be taken to achieve the objective? It is better to focus on the work and let the byproduct come when it comes.

At times it seams insurmountable to get a team pulling in the same direction. My question to any leadership team is, are you clearly defining the direction for your team. In the very word leadership is the word lead! Have you ever noticed that at the end of a race there is always a clearly defined finish line? It is actually easy to lead a team if the leaders are crystal clear as to where the organization is going. Clearly defined guild lines are the road map to a world class organization. A very large ship/organization can be benefited by a small helm in the time of a storm by keeping the ship/organization work ways against the wind and the waves.

Every interaction with the team should be accompanied with an overview of the objective? This principle is defined in the 7 Habits of highly effective people as beginning with the end in mind. Keeping the end in mind at the fore front of the organization will keep the team running in the same direction at all times. Remember if the littlest person in the organization is not clear about what the objective is, then the definition is not clear enough.

World class and simple go hand and hand and world class loves clearly defined road maps! Keep it simple and clear and the objective will be realized.