Recently, I was at a downtown branch of a bank (where I really do not enjoy being a customer) and noticed a poster on the wall ironically pledging superior service to its customers. The poster had the signatures of the branch staff on it, so playing the devil’s advocate or maybe the customer service advocate, I asked the counter clerk, who incidentally was standing opposite the poster, what was meant by “superior service”. After a few seconds and a completely blank stare, she replied that it meant being “nice”. She then said that she was just a trainee, so I asked her trainer (the other counter clerk). The answer I got from her, even for an anonymous organisation, would be too embarrassing to put in print. The thing about it is, the trainee really was on the right track.

I’ve written previously on the dollar value to a business of good customer service and customer satisfaction. The truth be told though, customer service is a lot more basic than that. Service really is just about feelings. The feeling that someone gets when doing business with you or that you get when doing business with someone else.

British Airways understands this principle and a few years ago devoted an entire ad campaign to it. Their full-page ad in the New York Times read (below quotes from satisfied customers): “It’s the way we make you feel that makes us the world’s favourite airline.” They know that people and their feelings cannot be separated. They know that if they touch the right feelings in people, those people will come back…again and again.

That’s why service is an art. It’s the art of creating good feelings. It’s the art of creating a warm and friendly atmosphere in your place of business (with your employees, not just your furniture). You create good feelings in your customers when they know their business is in the hands of empathetic and dependable people. People, who respect them and either know or are willing to find out what they want. And, the masterpiece, according to Holly Stiel, “…is a customer who arrives unhappy and leaves happy.” Holly continues, “…only an inspired and disciplined artist can create a masterpiece.”

We all know that discipline comes with training, yet most customer service personnel get very little of it. Most of them, as a matter of fact are the most disrespected people in their organisations. In many businesses they’re the most junior and certainly the least paid. Their feelings are rarely taken into consideration and unfortunately this spills over to the customer. The Golden Rule then, frequently becomes, “Do unto others as my superiors do unto me”.

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of seeing managers and supervisors verbally abuse their staff in front, or in the earshot, of customers. I’ve heard of business owners using obscene language to their employees. These people are obviously not in control of their feelings. What do you think is the level of service delivered at these places?

Good service must begin at the head of an organisation and flow right through all the employees before it reaches the customer. People like to be treated “nice”, it’s as simple as that, but as Edwin Newman says; "The obscure we see eventually, the completely obvious takes longer."

The impact on the bottom line, of creating these good feelings in your customers cannot be ignored. Southwest Airlines, an American airline, states that it’s mission is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and Company Spirit. Their employees are known for hiding in the overhead baggage compartments of their planes, giving passengers a good laugh on opening them. The customer service commitment, posted on their website states, “We tell our Employees we are in the Customer Service business-we just happen to provide airline transportation.” Southwest Airlines is the only American airline to continually declare a profit every year since 9/11.

In his book, Discovering The Soul of Service, Leonard Berry writes, “…about the overriding importance of humane values in building a lasting service business. Great service companies build a humane community (the organization and its partners) that humanely serves customers and the broader communities in which they live.”

People, their feelings, and their pockets, you see, cannot be separated.

Lorraine Villaroel is Marketing Manager, Quality Service of IBB Ltd.
Email her at quality@ibbglobal.com 
IBB is licensed by Leadership Management International and The Service Quality Institute for the Caribbean region