Service: The Universal Language

The first session I hit at the SHRM10 conference was titled “The 10 Simple Truths of Service.” I’m a bit of a fanatic when it comes to customer service, so I was intrigued to hear what the speaker, Barbara Glanz, had to say. The basis for the session came from the story of Johnny the Bagger. Johnny was an employee at a small regional grocery store in the Midwest. His efforts to go beyond the ordinary level of customer service inspired a movie and helped his company to win a national award.

Ms. Glanz emphasized the importance of going beyond the basic level of service required for the business transaction and making an effort to have a human impact on the customer. A good example most of us can identify with is a doctor visit. How many of you have had a doctor that treated you like a friend? He asks about your kids, your job, or your life in general. His interest in you makes the experience more pleasant by a long shot. On the opposite side of that coin is the doctor who treats you like a nameless, faceless revenue stream. He’s trying his best to prescribe something so he can get out and see someone else as soon as possible. I don’t think I have to ask which one you’d prefer to see!

Other noteworthy takeaways from the session:

• It’s not just for external customers. The speaker also took this message of service farther by applying it internally to organizations. Managers who give that human touch are more likely to create loyalty among their subordinates.
• Shift your bell curve. If you aim for standard service or you’ll fall short half of the time. Aim for amazing service and you’ll be above average most of the time.
• Great service trickles down. There are times that the business impact of providing a knock-your-socks-off level of service might seem minimal. While business impact may not be immediate, it will come out somewhere down the line.
• Customer needs are fairly simple (even if they’re not always easy). What do customers want? They want service that is friendly/caring, flexible, and solution-oriented. It also has to provide some sort of recovery process (empathize, take responsibility, and provide recourse).
• Companies need to find and share their own service legends. Organizations should collect and internally share customer service stories. One neat idea is to aggregate them and create a small booklet to share with employees.

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