Be part of good customer service.

Customer service is quite a buzz word.  People want it, hiring managers ask for it, and lots of people complain about it.  But what is customer service, really?

Well—a service is an exchange.  A customer wants an activity done, without having to own the activity.  Going to a grocery store and buying food is your way of saying you don’t want to grow it yourself.  Stores provide a service to buyers, who exchange it for something of value — usually money.  Customer service is an extension of that.  A customer expects a good and service to meet their demands according to the value — or money — they are giving in exchange. 

That’s where it gets tricky.  A service provider – like, say a restaurant – has placed a value on what they charge for their food.  If you go to a fancy restaurant, you should expect a difference in customer service (by value) in comparison to going to a chain restaurant or fast food.  However, people start to get used to being “treated” a certain way, and expect it no matter how much they pay for the good.  I see people frequently complain about bad service or not getting their needs met when they are only there to buy something small. 

Remember you are paying for the quality of the product and the service, but that doesn’t mean you should behave differently towards the provider.  I’ll give you an example. 

Last week, I took my family to a restaurant (think of cake, and a shape with four even sides).  We had to wait some 2 hours to get our food.  There was a problem in the back.  Everyone around us was upset and started taking it out on our waitress.  She was clearly frazzled.  So, my family decided we would help make her day better by making her laugh, supporting her efforts, saying nice things to the manager as he walked by, and taking very good care of her at the end. 

The end result was we put more value into the event, and our service skyrocketed.  We didn’t get the product faster, but we had a better time. 

The next time you think about someone who didn’t give you great customer service, think about the role you played in that.  Any good stories from my friends in the “service” end of this conversation?