Crisis, Change … and Customer Service
The global economy has seen a decent amount of crises and change over the past eighteen to twenty-four months. Every aspect of the economy has been profoundly impacted by the many crises (energy, food-chain, environment, healthcare, economic, financial, employment, to name a few). The changes presented to us via these crises continue to offer opportunities for everyday decision-makers to make an actionable difference by constructing strategies in which the future plays a more important role than the past. These opportunities will not last forever, the winds of change will themselves evolve and the difficulties caused by these crises, and the resulting opportunities, will fade in our fragile memories.
There is an overwhelming inventory of possibilities for actionable change that has been created by these crises. So overwhelming that the question "what should be done and where to start?" sounds almost ridiculously complex for anyone to seriously contemplate and address. This is true for businesses, many of which may be still struggling from the downturn, and especially true for businesses that expended all their resources on minimizing the downside. With that said there is a place to start, for businesses that seek to become more competitive and are looking to thrive, even during future crises. This place is called Customer Service.
Any business that has survived the global economic and financial melt-down will tell you that keeping customers/clients was helpful, to put it mildly. Businesses that shed and/or did not grow their customer base over the last year are certainly not in a position of strength to take advantage of the next economic cycle.
Customer Service is an often discussed topic in management meetings and there are more than enough books, blogs, seminars and presentations on the subject to educate all of us many times over … but very few get it right, and many get to horribly wrong.
You want to take action now and apply a new vision in a global economy that has been turned on its head? Start by becoming excellent at customer service. Give your customers other reasons beside price to buy from you. Make your company integral to your customer's operations and make your customer feel fortunate you are integral. Execute with thrift, applying resources carefully and diligently, which places a great deal of emphasize on your customer's resulting experience, not just the provision of goods or services.
You want to be better informed about global economic intricacies and how you can use these to be more competitive? Keep your customers close. You want to make sure your company is robust and well positioned for whatever the future may bring? Well, you may want to get in touch with who pays you … your customer.
Orginally published January 22, 2010