Do Onto Others . . .

Today I was brushing up on Mahatma Gandhi, his philosophy and methods.  If you are not familiar with his works and philosophy beyond what media or folklore provide, I highly recommend a closer look.

While reading, it occurred to me that part of the reason customer service has a large impact on our lives is not because it is special in and of itself, but because it is an extension of the golden rule and therefore, of good social order -

               ”Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. 

The curious thing is that in order to follow the golden rule, we must be willing to temporarily disengage from our own condition.  That is to say, we must focus on the customer’s point of view, putting ourselves in their position. 

We cannot offer good service only when we feel the world has been fair to us, when things are going well, when all is just as we want it.  Good customer service requires that we consider the needs of another, even as we struggle with our own.  OK, this is sounding a little dogmatic, but isn’t it the essence of good customer service.

I often notice three types of customer service people. 

1. Those of us whose willingness to provide XCS is dependent on whether or not we are receiving it.
2. Those of us who are simply trying our best to do a difficult job
   and
3. Those of us who have realized, strangely enough, that our own quality of life is usually positively affected by our honest effort to consider the needs of others.

Those of us in the first group, need to move to either of the others, or should consider a diferent line of work.  Most of us, however, find ourselves in the second group as we move forward day to day to do our best at a job that is, at times, difficult.  This is not a bad place to be.

But, the blessing of customer service work can more readily be felt in the third group, where our lives tend to improve because of our work.  Where we become more tolerant and our problems seem to become less debilitating as we disengage from the idea that we are the center of the universe, while we concentrate on helping someone else.

Service does not need to be monumental or earth shattering.  It just needs to consider the customer’s point of view separately from our own. 

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – Mahatma Gandhi

Rudy Vidal
Committed to XCS !

Its about the heart. Put your money away.

A couple of days ago I traveled for the second time on Southwest Airlines. 
It took the second time to fully understand and appreciate the experience.  I think it wasn’t clear to me the first time because I was accustomed to a certain way of flying.  I had accepted the flying paradigm handed to me over the years. 

On the second trip, I read the airline magazine and came across a farewell article from the airline’s president Colleen Barrett.  In the article she explained Southwest’s customer philosophy and how their success was based on a simple premise, an expectation and requirement of a display of “:Golden Rule Behavior” among and from Southwest Employees -

“Do onto others as you would have others do onto you”.

Once I read the article something seemed to click and I began to see things I had not noticed until then.  Flight attendants were fun, helpful, nice, friendly.  More importantly, passengers were the same.  When the captain announced a weather delay, no one made the usual sarcastic comments or eye-rolling sighs.  In stead there were the inevitable jokes about Chicago and its weather.  The next thing I noticed was that the energy on the flights was less hurried, intense and more  . . .I’ll say it, “loving”.

Southwest is not a high priced airline that can afford great customer service,  in fact, they are the opposite, a low cost airline (one of the few making money).  So, how does that work?

Ms. Barrett, understands it, and I suspect the entire culture does as well.  Customer satisfaction comes from a state of mind.  It comes from a caring spirit that needs no funding, no budget nor gadgets.  Loyalty comes from the emotions we are able to create in our customers when they see that they are cared for, as people.

Most executives with whom I speak regarding Customer Satisfaction mention they would like to work on customer centricity but believe they can’t afford it.  We must convince them all to put away their money and put their hearts out where the customer can see them. 
 
Higher quality of life and higher business benefits are just around the corner, ask Ms. Barrett, or fly Southwest at least twice.

RudyVidal
Committed to XCS !