As companies push toward profitability, it would be wise to seek help by invoking customer service excellence. What do you think?

A Recent News Release                                           

According to a January Reuter’s news release, "Employment growth accelerated last month [December] and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, the strongest evidence yet that the economic recovery is gaining steam."                                                       

Although many temporary, holiday jobs may have accounted for some of this growth, this undoubtedly, is progress.  Yet, one wonders what impact this changing situation could have on customer service standards in the year ahead.

But first, let us examine some more recent news—the latest on Friday, February 3, 2012. Recent employment figures have dropped to 8.3% with the increase of 243,000 jobs in January. Of even more significance is the report that service industries have grown the most in a year. This is great news for people in the service industry, but it also signals a need to sharpen those skills and keep on the alert for the competition.

The Competition

Customer service employees and their managers must accept that within their departments—where, normally, employees earn a living by listening, responding, and caring for a company's customers—there should never be room for lukewarm service.  Instead, fostering a high standard of caring for customer needs should be the priority. This puts a company one step—nay several steps—ahead of the competition.

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                                  Battling The Competition

Charity Begins at Home

Some may argue that not all companies need employees who exhibit great customer service skills; but let this be a wake-up call. Customer service excellence can be likened to charity; it begins at “home” with our internal customers—the other employees within a company. It is a well-known fact that, “If you’re not serving the [external] customer, you had better be serving someone who is.” (Albrecht, K. & Zemke R. Service America. 1990).

Great employee relationships within the workplace pan out as excellence in the customer service that customers receive. And this is such an easy goal to accomplish when management gets on board.

Management’s Role

Some managers— not all—downplay the importance of excellence in customer service in the workplace. They sometimes forget that the sales person should be a vital part of the customer service team.  As a result, many fail to commit to a vibrant customer service culture within their companies.

Such commitment should begin with an inclusion in the company’s mission statement, but does not end there. They should design programs of recognition and reward, offer incentives, add systems and equipment that operate well, a recruitment process that hires the right people and, of course, a customer service training program that’s the best. These will fuel employee satisfaction and propel even the most productive employees to higher levels of productivity.

As our nation benefits economically from this surge, may we all make customer service excellence a priority; then happily witness and enjoy the results of our efforts.