By John Paschall, Servant Leader
Gift Giving – One of the Keys to Great Customer Service
As soon as Thanksgiving is over, our thoughts and focus begin to turn to the Christmas season with all the trappings it entails. (For some stores, that time seems to keep moving backwards and is now right around Labor Day!). With the turn of that page of the calendar, comes a turn in our focus to all of the details that come with Christmas including the baking, the buying, the wrapping, the celebration, and on and on. True enough, our focus on the true meaning of Christmas, that extraordinary gift the world received over 2000 years ago, can get a little lost in the hustle and bustle of the season.
I wanted to take just a moment to say “thank you” for some amazing gifts that I have received this year and to help refocus us as business leaders on the idea that Gift Giving is one of the greatest keys to Great Customer Service…if we take the time to be intentional about it on a daily basis.
First the “Thank You’s” for my gifts:
* Thank you to our 30 Board of Directors who are some of the most caring, passionate, spiritual, and visionary business leaders I have ever been involved with. You are an amazing group and I have been honored to work with you this year. You are one of the keys to the success of this BBB!
* Thank you to the team at the BBB. What a blessing and a gift it has been to work with you this year. I knew before I started in January of this year that you were talented, but little did I know how talented, creative, caring, and just downright awesome you really are! You are another of the keys to our success.
* Finally thank you to you, our Accredited Businesses. You are the third key to the success of this BBB. It has been an honor and a pleasure to get to meet with you and talk with you during my first year here at the BBB. Your passion for great customer service and your support of our BBB has helped to make us one of the Top 5 BBB’s in the Nation! Thank you for that amazing gift!
Indeed, I am a blessed man. When I look at my wife, my daughter, and the people that I get to work with on a daily basis…I am grateful and thankful.
Surely by now, you are asking: “But how is Gift Giving a Key to Customer Service? Tell us more.” Good enough…here it is.
With every action you take as a business leader each day, you have the opportunity to create a culture in your organization that moves it one way or another: toward better customer service or away from it; toward more ethical behavior or away from it. You see, with each phone call you take, every service call you make, and every interaction with customers, team members, and the community, you are dropping another seed in the garden of the culture you are cultivating in your organization. That culture will ultimately determine the level of success your organization is able to reach. Still unclear? Let’s break it down even further:
* Every time you deal with a client with compassion and understanding, whether on the phone or in person, and do your dead-level best to help them find a solution to their problem, you are giving the gift of a culture of customer service that your entire team will learn and follow on a daily basis, even when you are not with them.
* Every time you treat your employees with respect and honor and compassion, challenging them to build on their strengths, and helping them to address, learn from, and overcome their weaknesses, you are giving the gift of a culture of understanding, respect, and compassion that your team will replicate with each other and the clients they deal with each day.
* Every time you and your team members represent your organization in a professional, caring, and customer-centered way, you are giving the gift of a culture of excellence that will make its mark in your community and will return dividends to your organization far beyond just the bottom line of the profit and loss statement.
* Every phone call, every interaction, every opportunity for service to a client or customer is an opportunity to give another gift. That is why this type of gift giving is a key to great customer service!
If you ever question how important those small acts of customer service, kindness, and compassion are to the culture you are trying to create, let me share with you the story of Johnny, the bagger. This story is contained in the YouTube video link below. Many of you may have already seen or heard of this, but I was introduced to it just yesterday. Thank you, Tim Baker, from Baker Auto Repair – what an incredible gift you shared! We will be using this as the inspiration moment for our Board Meeting in December. It is a very simple video, but incredibly powerful and profound. Most of the most powerful truths in life ARE simple, aren’t they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sepARXV8MRI
Never underestimate then, the power of what you do each time you answer the phone, work with a team member, or interact with a customer. Those interactions, those “touches” are foundational to the success of your business.
Have a great month, a great holiday and keep building your better business! Let us know how we can help you in 2013!
P.S. Get ready to join us in 2013 as we celebrate our 50th anniversary as a BBB! We have an amazing line-up of events that you will not want to miss. See you then!
