Mahatma Gandhi – India’s
independence activist and leader, renown for employing nonviolent civil disobedience
that led India to independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and
freedom across the world; has the timeless and legendary customer service quote
popularly attributed to him as having been delivered in a speech in South
Africa in 1890.
It still remains a customer experience
wonder how these words uttered over a century ago not only remain relevant to
date, but also form the back bone upon which every enterprise big or small,
start up or established, individual or jointly owned, should focus their customer
service efforts.
Unpacking each one of these 5 statements,
provides us the opportunity to really focus on developing a customer centric
culture, and to have a customer facing attitude that can only serve to deliver winning results at both a personal and
professional level.
A customer is the most important
visitor in our premises
Indeed customers are the reason
why every single business opens its doors every morning. Without customers, no
matter what product is being sold, service being delivered or ideology being
pushed, without the audience then it totally ceases to matter. Who then is the
center of focus for every organization but the customer? On who should due
importance then be plied?
A customer is not dependent on
us, we are dependent on them
Customers are and will always
remain to be the drivers of business. It is from customers that the revenues
required to sustain business are obtained. It is customers that sustain growth.
Even in the not for profit sector, customers being defined as the different stakeholders
for whom service is provided, are the backbone upon which the enterprise is
built. No customers = no business.
A customer is not the
interruption of our work but the purpose of it
Customers are often viewed as ‘work’…
and very often as a ‘bother’. Especially when customers ‘inconvenience’ the service
provider by coming or calling at the ‘wrong’ time or doing what is contrary to
the rules and regulations set out by the provider. Many a time customers have
been made to beg or plead for services or to feel unwanted. How much sadder can
it get than to subject customers to this?
A customer is not an outsider of
our business but a key part of it
Partnership partnership partnership
- this is the new song that every organization must sing with regards to
delivering customer experience excellence. Make every customer your friend and partner
with them towards raising service excellence. Making customers key partners will
ensure they get listened to, that their voices matter, and that continual
improvement is an everyday discussion.
Customers—we are not doing them a
favor by serving them—they are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to
do so
Nothing further can be added to
this self-explanatory statement except to urge each one of us to remember the
true value of our customers and to remember the valuable opportunity they provide
each time they allow us to be of service.
That Mahatma’s wise words should
challenge us to raise our delivery levels is not in debate; leaving a legacy of
excellent customer service that transcends centuries is not without our means.
We just need to ensure every customer interaction, leaves every customer be
they be internal or external feeling positively better and thankful for the
experience.
