Thursday, August 25, 2011

Be Human

I have been married to my wife now for going on 7 years. In that time, she has never known me to work outside of the world of customer service. When we first were dating up until this day, I have been squarely focused on and engaged in the world of customer service.

In that time, she rarely will engage in conversation about my work because she prefers to allow me to leave work at work, which is great and something I really love about her. But once in a while she will drop a gem on me that will get my head spinning and leave me scratching my head. The other day she told me a story while we were driving somewhere that really for me summed up what should be at the core of every companies service experience.

She told me that she recently went to Whole Foods and was looking for some ingredients for a recipe that she wanted to try to make for our oldest daughter. Long story short, our oldest has some very important special diet restrictions that force my wife to be very picky about what she can cook for her for meals and forces her to experiment quite a bit to get it right. As you might imagine, these restrictions can make shopping for my wife both expensive and also frustrating.

Well, on this day she was walking down the aisle, looking for some specific ingredients for this dish she was looking to experiment with. She bumped into one of the employees and asked them a question. He did not know the answer, but guided my wife up to the front help desk to see if the person there happened to know the answer or would be able to provide more guidance. She reached the help desk (who knew Whole Foods had a help desk) and the woman there helped her figure out what she was looking for and then walked with my wife through the store helping her find the other ingredients that she would need to finish up the dish. As they finished up getting the items, the woman started writing on the items across the back of them. When she had finished, she handed the items to my wife and said, "We know how expensive and difficult it can be sometimes to help your kids eat that have special needs, so this one is on us." My wife was shocked and speechless. When she told me the story, I also had my jaw drop.

I started to think about this experience in the context of all of the things I talk about here and hear about daily in the world of customer experience and customer service. And I think I just had a moment of clarity about what is real customer service. Being Human.

As simple as it sounds. Customer service and authentic customer service that will win customers and keep customers is service that lets people know that you are human and are able to see their challenge or problem as if you were in their shoes. It is not about technology, it is not about process, it is not about being social or having a social business etc.... At the core, customer service needs to be about being human and relating to someone that is calling to you for help. Does that mean that we are always able to help them get what they want? No. But it does mean putting yourself in their shoes and trying to find a solution that helps them see you are human!

What is the core of your service philosophy?

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