I just got back from my first of two trips abroad and what an amazing time I had. From the mountains of California to the deserts of Nevada, I just have to say the landscapes are just simply incredible and I got to see quite a bit over the nine days I was there. I drove 1500 miles in a Mercury Grand Marquis; hardly in style, but a cruise none the less! (It also explains why my ass is a bit numb!)

As you’d expect, after getting back from a holiday, I had come back to lots of things that needed tending too including; my car battery which was flat. I called the rescue company, and as far as helplines go, they weren’t too bad in responding to my call but in general, customer services has gone completely down the proverbial toilet! Due a to mix up with my previous car, they nearly ended up charging me for the call out.

We need a new style of leadership when it comes to customer services. Everywhere I go now I rarely hear people say anything good about any customer service departments they deal with. Why do companies insist on making it so difficult? For profit margins? I can’t see those poor strategies doing anything other than damage profit margins so I’m not sure where that thinking arises from.

Here’s what I think needs to be done.

Automated Systems

The automated selection systems need to be completely abolished altogether. However if used, they need to be kept an absolute maximum of three options. As an example these 3 could be used: i) Sales; ii) Customers Services; iii) Technical Support. My bank have the right idea. As soon as you call them you get through to a person and they have the ability to deal with the majority of your queries.

If they can’t deal with it they pass it onto a specialist from the relevant department and they also explain the query to them before handing you over so you don’t have to explain yourself again. That is the best way of doing it. They don’t ask you to click through a billion options before being put through the same department which you would’ve got through to anyway.

Off-shoring

Off-shoring is probably the quickest way of saving money and pissing off your customers all in one swoop. Hey, I’m Indian and I struggle communicating the with the Indians! We’re only human and sometimes communicating your point to someone with a thick accent that doesn’t understand your query can be so frustrating; especially when you have to repeat yourself.

I’m not against off-shoring as a whole but you need to know that if you’re going to take that route that your customers aren’t exactly going to be jumping for joy. It takes years before you get used to it and years for the staff to get more accustomed to communicating with other people; something which is irrelevant if you have high turnover. I have colleagues over in India and it’s taken years for us to develop that rapport and ability to understand each other clearly.

Attitude

The adopted attitude of many of the reps I’ve spoken to over the last few years has been one of ‘lets just get them off the phone as quickly as possible’. I like to think of myself as a good customer and someone who, if given a good service, will respond accordingly. If however, I’m not treated like a human being then my first reaction is to rebel against them. If you want to elicit the best from people you have to know how to communicate properly.

The general state of the attitude of customer service staff I believe stems from one prime thing; poor leadership. If you have someone there who doesn’t lead well the reps will go on to do what they want and behave in ways to suit them. Put a good leader in place who knows how to elicit the best from people and that will filter down the chain of command and ultimately to the reps that you and I speak to over the phone.

Service

Lets take this word ‘Service’ past it’s superficial level and take it up a notch. We are all servants in one form or another. Service is a certainty in life. As it’s a given we then have to choose how we serve ourselves and the rest of humanity. (ultimately, in my opinion one and the same thing!) Whether you run your own blog, business, or you’re an employee you are serving your customers and that QoS (Quality of Service; pronounced ‘kwas’) experience will stay with people for the rest of their lives.

Having a deep rooted desire to truly serve comes from a good leader but from one other important ingredient. It comes from a deeper understanding of yourself and the lasting affect of your actions. Some people may not want a fun and pleasant transaction. They may just want a quick clean solution. If you can learn to pick up on these subtle nuances and better understand the needs of people and what people value the most, you’ve not only found the best way to serve through your vocation, but you’ve now also found a powerful skill to enrich your experience of life.

To Summarise

1. Get rid of these automated menu selection systems. They’re pointless and only cause the customers to get irate before they’ve even speak to a human being.

2. Put a good leader in place. Someone who knows how to get the best from people and someone who understands the needs of the both the business and customer concurrently.

3. Develop a deeper understanding of the word ‘service’. Take pride in the way you serve and set powerful goals to provide unparalleled levels of service.

A very happy new year to you all for 2009! It’s so far started out to be a very exciting year for me! Many new possibilities and opportunities have already begun emerging simply because of the very powerful intentions and resolutions that I’ve set for myself.

Just like last year I haven’t been thin with my resolutions! Even though I haven’t documented all of them I’m certain that once I do they will get extremely close to the 15 pages that I wrote for last year. The difference this year is that I have a very specific theme which is something I haven’t done before. Similar to my weekly focus points but this will be the core theme for my whole year encompassing all the resolutions and plans.

The theme for 2009 year is ‘Self Leadership’ and I encourage you to adopt this theme for yourself too!

What is Self Leadership?

Think of your favorite icon in history who inspired millions. It could be Dr Martin Luther King or Gandhi or anyone who has in some way inspired you. Now think about how they managed to inspire those millions of people! What was it, within those people, that they connected with? How did their message touch you?

In each of us is the capacity to be those kinds of leaders. We don’t necessarily have to go out and inspire millions and infact that need not even be present within your reasoning. The reason that people like Gandhi were so inspiring was because they had very strong beliefs and no matter how they were challenged they held to those beliefs. When you see someone fighting for what they believe sometimes it doesn’t even matter if you believe in that cause you’ll rise and support them! They had vision and a purpose!

Lead Yourself Through Vision

To engage those leadership qualities within you, you must first and foremost get a vision for yourself that inspires you and then automatically you will inspire others to support your cause.

Many people I know have sold themselves short, myself included, about what they’re capable of achieving in their lives. The trouble is what you set for yourself as a target. If it’s one you’re likely to reach but is one that isn’t inspiring to you are you going to even want to reach it? What if you set yourself a vision and dream that was so inspiring to you that every time you even just thought about it you got goose pimples?

Even if you set yourself a goal that is perfectly within reach of you if it doesn’t inspire you you’re not likely to reach it because you simple “can’t be arsed to”!

Setting a target that is almost unreachable but very inspiring to you to the point where it brings a tear to the eye is the best way to go! It will automatically have given yourself the drive to go and achieve it rather than looking for some external force to motivate you!

Carving a Path

Ultimately what this means for me is that no matter who I’m with or where I am I will follow the dreams and visions I’ve created for myself. People who are inspired individuals can often intimidate others and their first reaction may often be to try and knock some of the wind out of your sails!

I remember I was invited to a dinner party a while back and there was a young woman there. She was very good looking and she looked like she had a lot going for her. We started talking and immediately upon seeing how much I loved life she immediately tried to impose her model of the world on me1and she also tried to tell me that I would soon learn the way of the real world and that I would sooner or later be “shit” upon! Her assumption was that I had obviously had a very easy life and that I was brought up wrapped up in cotton wool. If only she knew! The only difference between her and I is the way in which we choose to percieve those events and how we choose to respond to them.

So when anyone does try and bring me down instead of letting it get to me I now actually take is a compliment that I’ve pushed someone’s buttons about being inpspired about my life and through all the progress I’m making towards my visions and dreams!

Don’t just be someone who follows the crowd or even follows a path just because someone else has done it before! The route someone has taken towards succes is not necessarily going to work for you even though the destinations may be similar. Find your own way of getting there by experimenting through various successes and failures! I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again that I would much rather try and fail then never try at all!

So for 2009 I encourage you employ a similar ideology for Self Leadership. Become a true leader of yourself, your emotions and create dreams and visions that inspire you to be the greatest ‘you’, you can be!

For this week my focus point is very clear in simple. In any given situation I ask myself if I want to be the leader or be led? Am I going to be led by those around me and do the things that I truly don’t want to do or am I going to go in a any group and no matter the dynamic be a leader upon myself? Whether others choose to follow me or not is completely irrelevant.

The most important this is that I follow my true deepest inner guidance and wisdom rather than “following the crowd”.

So for this week my focus point offering to you is to ask yourself for any given situation whether you wish to lead or be led?