What is your service attitude?

The choices we make in business affect customer service even when the actions are seemingly removed from the customer's immediate knowledge. Too often companies make the mistake of believing that customer service is the job of the Sales department or Marketing team, but that could not be farther from the truth. In reality, sincere customer service needs to permeate an organization at all levels and should be part of every decision every employee makes.

As a Sales Engineer, I fly to remote locations almost constantly to present our product offering. When you travel to a customer location, do you book a hotel close to the customer's office so that you can be early to the meeting, or do you book close to the airport for your travel convenience? This may seem like a small thing and the customer will likely never know, but it is a decision that affects how well you are prepared for a presentation. Being close to the customer relieves the pressure of travel before the meeting. It allows you to be more focused and the customer will notice.

A less obvious place for customer service attention is in product engineering. A common misconception is that product development and software engineering are too removed from the customer to really be concerned about it, but in the most successful companies, every engineer is acutely aware of the end user experience. Understanding how the end user actually uses the product gives the developers a deeper understanding of the real customer needs and the developers tend to see solutions as opposed to code.

If you know me, you know I am a Disney nut and a lot of that is about their business attitude. Every Disney employee understands that the goal is exceptional customer experience. Whether it is Cinderella or a popcorn vender, a street cleaner or the shuttle driver, every employee is focused on the end result of providing an exceptional customer service experience. Why should any other organization be any different?

Can you honestly say that every person in your company puts customer service first? If not, maybe it is time to take a closer look at what really matters and how the little things like service attitude mean big things to the bottom line.

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