|
|
No One Has A Passion For Customer Service...So Stop Saying You Do and more
No One Has A Passion For Customer Service...So Stop Saying You Do
Our passions are formed when we're young and there is not a single person involved in customer service in any company today that dreamed of being in customer service as a child. Not a single one was lining up their teddy bears pretending to help them fix a software issue, get their cable TV working or helping them return an item of clothing that they've clearly already worn. The truth is no one has a passion for customer service so saying it lacks any credibility whatsoever. It is totally inauthentic. However... There are lots of people out there who care about other people. There are many people in the business world who carried their teddy bear with them where ever they went and tucked it in to bed at night. Later in life, the teddy bear was replaced by people. These same kids genuinely cared about other kids on the playground. They made sure everyone got invited to the birthday party so no one would feel left out. And as adults - those same people make the best customer facing employees - not because they have a passion for customer service, but because they genuinely care about people. If you want to offer great customer service, then hire people who care about other people then give them the tools and the freedom to do it. And if you want to tell people about your "passion for customer service," try saying this instead: "we only hire people who care about other people." And, if you actually do it, your customers will feel the difference. Do You Want To Be A Leading Company or A Leader?There's a difference between being a leading company and a leader. Leading companies sell more than everyone else. Those who lead set the direction for the rest of the industry. Here's what it takes to be a company that leads. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy To read more about what it takes to lead, read Start With Why. And to be one who leads, give your copy away to someone you want to inspire... Which Way Is Your Monkey?Too many companies are organized like a tree of monkeys. Everyone at the top, looking down, sees only smiles. But everyone at the bottom, looking up, sees only asses.
The servant leader faces down the tree. They concern themselves with getting more of the people looking up to see a smile - to see something good. To inspire them. People would rather follow the smile than the ass. The good news is that the servant leader's career still does well. Though those at the top of the tree may see something somewhat disagreeable, the smiles beneath that servant leader, the loyalty they command and their ability to inspire, can not be ignored. In fact, it is rewarded. Being a downward facing monkey is the best strategy to avoid short-term pitfalls in a career and for a company. If you're a servant leader, all those beneath you, looking up, will tell you which branches to look out for. No one is looking out of the self-serving monkey. No one cares what happens to that ass.
Membership Had Its PrivilagesBeing a member of American Express (and “member” was indeed the
term) used to mean something. To carry that green card with the
Roman centurion in your wallet was a sign of success, a sign of
independence, proof that you were going somewhere. But the brand
built on the premise of “Membership has its privileges” seems to
have forgotten its cause and become just another company selling
credit-card services. In an attempt to capture all the market
segments, to have something for everyone, AmEx has tarnished its
brand. And worse, it’s hurting its own business.
Anyone who has an American Express card knows that it’s not accepted everywhere—but we were okay with that. The occasional inconvenience was acceptable. As with any premium brand, there was a price to be paid because we wanted to be part of an elite group. We didn’t carry an AmEx card because of universal acceptance, anyway; we carried it because it was a symbol of who we were. But no more. What had once been an exclusive club has thrown wide its doors to admit everyone. Suddenly, membership doesn’t feel so special anymore. The entire concept of membership—the whole idea of premium—is that it’s exclusive. The physics of it are unavoidable: The more you appeal to the masses, the less exclusive you become, and the less value your premium possesses. This degradation is no theoretical matter: With the loss of value inevitably comes the loss of business. Card carriers hear the phrase, “I’m sorry, we no longer accept American Express,” more frequently now than ever before. I understand a small business’s decision to stop accepting the card; the fees, they say, are too high. But for me, the real red flag started waving when my American Express card was denied at H&M. The clothing chain has 175 stores in the U.S. and 1,800 worldwide. Last year, the company rang up $14 billion in sales—and it no longer takes American Express. Only a bit less disconcerting is to slide your AmEx card across the counter and be told by the cashier that the store “prefers” that you use Visa or MasterCard, if you have one. There was a day when “members” insisted on using their AmEx cards. We did this because the experience of using it meant something to us. These days, more people are all too happy to flip through their wallets and pluck out the alternate plastic, as requested. Consumers’ appreciation of their American Express membership has never had anything to do with points or air-miles. Those are tricks that lots of companies use to drive repeat business—but it’s not the same thing as loyalty. Loyalty is the willingness to pay a premium, or even to turn down a better product, in order to continue doing business with the same company. Like any couture label, the American Express’s centurion was a badge of honor, and a physical symbol of living the American Dream. “Privilege,” as AmEx should know, isn’t about perks—it’s a feeling you imbue in your loyal customers. And what of the retailers? Retailers rarely have nice things to say about AmEx anymore. They complain that it takes AmEx forever to pay them. The retailers are just as much a constituency as the cardholder; they should be made to feel like members, too. When a company has a strong brand, its constituents either tolerate the inconveniences or rationalize them away. But when the brand is weak, the only thing people focus on is what’s wrong. And it gets worse. AmEx used to be one of those stocks that people held onto for the long term. But it’s very different now. Like its product, AmEx stock is becoming just another equity, and investors bail out at the slightest hint of a cloudy day. It all boils down to a few essentials: Great companies are built on the backs of the loyal, not the masses. AmEx no longer has shareholders, it has share-squatters. AmEx no longer boasts members, it gets visitors. And retailers no longer want to be a part of a purportedly exclusive club when they can get all the same services at the YMCA. Serving the mass audience and the luxury audience is fine—but you can’t do it with the same brand. Honda has Acura. Toyota has Lexus. American Express needs another card. Call it, say, People’s Express. People’s Express can chase market segments and go head-to-head with MasterCard and Visa. Meanwhile, that proud centurion on the AmEx card needs to stand for something again.
Read a free chapter from Simon's new book Start With Why Read Now - http://bit.ly/L26zk Twitter - @simonsinek Article originally featured in BrandWeek. The Best Thing You Can Have Is Bad IntelligenceDuring the Cold War, America would fly spy planes over the Soviet Union to count how many bombers they had. Knowing exactly what the Americans were doing, the Soviets laid out hundreds of fake, wooden bombers to trick the Americans into thinking that they had a much bigger capability than they actually did. The problem was, America believed its own intelligence and built real It wasn't until after the fall of the Berlin Wall did we learn that, if we ever had gone to war with the Soviet Union, we would have annihilated them because our resources vastly outnumbered theirs. This massive unfair advantage would not have happened if it weren't for the good fortune of some bad intelligence. Believing that your competition is stronger and better than you will pushes you to better yourselves. Whether real or perceived, believing you have a disadvantage forces you to find new and clever ways to compete. It's always the organizations that are resourced constrained that come up with the good ideas to win. You can save money on competitive analyses by simply pretending that whatever your competition is doing, they are doing it better than you. This works no matter if you're the leader or the challenger. Instead of constantly trying to compare what you're doing to others, focus instead on constantly trying to improve yourself and the way you do things. You should believe, true or not, that there is always someone lurking on the horizon waiting to take advantage of you. The greatest threat any organization can face is not its competition but its own success. With great success comes complacency - the false belief that you are the best and that you don't have to worry. The problem is, you'll only realize it's a false belief when someone else catches you by surprise. This pattern is repeated over and over and over. Wal-Mart, Microsoft and General Motors all believed that they were unbeatable...until a company who believed they were not as strong found a better way to compete with the 800lb gorilla. More Recent Articles |
