John Smart's Blog

We tend to focus on customer service delivery and ensuring that we have got this right; which is quite understandable, as we know customers will walk if they do not get the right service.

However, you can have the best systems and processes in the world - but these can be copied or bought by your competitors. What really makes the difference is the people - and one of the key differentiators is leadership or how they are led.

What does it mean to be a leader? This is one question that has academics in a turmoil as over the generations there have been many theories, ideas and concepts put forward, each with their own merit, but with none actually hitting the mark. These theories range from behavioural, situational, trait – to name a few.

For myself, having studied and delivered many leadership programmes, I believe that a leader will satisfy three basic areas: Vision, Engagement and Delivery – or what I call the V.E.D. Principle.

 Vision: A leader will look forward, see the positive in obstacles and planning for the future.
 Engagement: Leaders are able to use their interpersonal skills to engage, communicate and influence people to get people on board.
 Delivery: Leaders have the motivation, will or influence to achieve what they set out to do.

When we contrast this to ‘management’, we can see that management (and the literature around this) aligns to more of a process driven approach of: planning, organising, monitoring and reviewing.

Simplistically, leadership can be seen as the ‘what’, and management as the ‘how’.
In addition, leadership is also not just confined to the higher echelons of a business (as some people natural assume) it should be a ‘golden thread’ running through the whole organisation at all levels.

Jack Welch (ex CEO of GE) was once purported to have entered a board meeting and said: ‘Don’t manage – lead!’, then walked out. His message was clear – that good leadership would deliver what was needed.

What has this to do with Customer Service, and more importantly when you are responsible for a customer service team or department? Everything.

The person supervising the customer service team needs to demonstrate as much leadership ability as the CEO of the organisation. One of the main differences may be the scale and context of their ‘vision’.

Adding leadership into customer service adds a whole new value to the experience. Instead of just applying a process management driven approach, try re-aligning the service to a leadership approach.

For example, which sounds better to the team?:

Customer Service ‘Manager’: ‘Right, we need to achieve 100% satisfaction rate in the next quarter. This will be achieved by cutting down response times and focusing on the top priorities first.’

Or

Customer Service ‘Leader’: ‘Right team, we aim to the best the best in the business. There is a National Award next month. To get this we need to achieve 100% satisfaction rate. This will take some work, but I believe that we can, with some effort, get this award and prove our standing. Right, to get this we need…..’

The first example demonstrates a typical process, objective driven management style. In the second, the ‘leader’ has highlighted the vision, the goal, engaged the team as they now understand the reason for the extra work, which helps motivate the team to going forward and achieving the deliverable.

The examples given are very simplistic, but they try to demonstrate the difference between a management and a leadership approach. It is only one of many examples of customer leadership, and is only scratching the surface.

The key message for those of you who are responsible for customer service teams – it’s great leadership that really makes the difference.

Customer Service – an alternative view.

Ummm, that looks interesting, I’ve never seen it in that colour before.

‘Can I help you?’ said the lady shop assistant in a very abrupt tone.

‘No. Thanks.’

What is she looking at? I only looked because it seemed a little funny in that colour. Stop staring at me. Phew, she’s serving someone else. She doesn’t look very happy. I bet she hates her job. Why can’t she smile when she’s talking to people? I bet she gets tired everyday doing this. It must be nice meeting all these different people, but I bet she must get some really horrible ones.

‘Are you buying anything?’

‘Errrm….’

‘Look, I’ve got other customers to serve. Are you lost?’

Wow – she called me a ‘customer’. That’s nice. I wonder if she calls all people ‘customer’, or is it just me? Should I tell her my name? No, she’s not interested in that. I wonder what her name is?

‘What’s your name?’

‘I beg your pardon!’

She’s a little scary when she looks like that. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Miss.’

‘No, what’s your first name?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

Gosh, why is she being so horrible.

‘Because it’s nice to know someone’s name.’

‘Oh, and why’s that?’

‘Well, because you become…sort of…real.’

‘Real, eh. Umm. Ok, my name’s Sheila. What’s yours?’

‘My name’s Eric.’

‘Nice to meet you Eric.’

‘Are you happy?’

‘Well, you certainly know how to get straight to the point’, she said, and then contemplated for a couple of seconds. ‘That’s an interesting question’, she said, warming to him slightly. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘You don’t look happy.’

‘Oh don’t I?’

‘No, you never smile.’

‘Oh, I see, well, it’s a little difficult to smile at times.’

‘Why?’

‘Because of a lot of things, a bit of tiredness, dealing with customers who are grumpy or argumentative.’

‘But if you smiled, they would smile back. My Gran said that when you smile the whole world smiles with you.’

She chuckled to herself. ‘Well, what words of wisdom from your Gran, and I think she may have borrowed those words from an old song, but she’s right. Hmm. OK, I’ll give it a go. Now, what else have you to say?’

‘Well, you can’t just smile. You have to be happy.’

‘Be happy eh, that easy.’

‘Yes, if you think happy thoughts then it makes you happy, and if you’re happy others will be happy. My Gran said that happiness is inflectious and if you’re happy then so will others be.’

‘I think you mean infectious. Yes, I can see how your Gran thinks.’

‘So, she said be happy, and others will be happy as well.’

‘OK, I’ll give it a go. Anything else?’

‘No, I think that’s all my Gran says, and she says that has worked for her.’

‘Umm, you and your Gran are very right.’

‘Eric! There you are. I’ve been looking for you all over the shop,’ said the young woman walking briskly across the shop floor.

‘Hi Mummy, this is Shelia,’ said Eric.

‘Hello Sheila’, said the young woman. Turning back to Eric she said, ‘What have you been doing?’

‘He’s been giving me some very wise words of wisdom,’ Sheila interrupted. ‘He’s a very wise young man.’

‘Thank you for looking after him,’ said Eric’s mum.

‘My pleasure,’ said the shop assistant. ‘Goodbye Eric, and thank you.’

As Eric walked away he got near the door and turned his head round. He noticed a rather frustrated customer go to the counter. He saw Sheila smile and greet the customer warmly. The customer warmed to Sheila’s smile. Sheila glanced across to Eric, and mouthed ‘Thank you.’

Eric smiled to himself as he walked out of the shop holding his mother’s hand.

‘In my opinion….?’ ‘Can I give you my opinion…..’

Of course you can give me your opinion, but whether I will take it on board is another matter.

The problem with opinion is that it’s personal.  If you analyse how it is said it is almost always started with ‘my….’ when someone is offering it to you.

Though ‘my’ opinion of something may differ from ‘your’ opinion.  You may like Italian food – I may dislike it (I don’t, but humour me).  If you are eating an Italian meal in front of me, and I start saying that it’s awful, it’s plain….. – that’s my opinion.  However, you will carry on eating it – because it works for you and you enjoy it.

Those working in customer service are bombarded by people giving their ‘opinion’.  In some customer service situations customers are encouraged to give their ‘opinion’.  It will then depend on the organisation to filter out the personal from the constructive.  Therefore, an organisation, or an individual needs to be careful if asking for opinion.  While the intention may be good, in most cases the opinion may not be acted upon because, as in the Italian food example, what they are doing works for them.

Opinion can sometimes be compared to a badly made cappuccino – all froth and no coffee.  What is needed here, is feedback, not in the form of opinion but good, effective feedback.

But how can this be achieved?

Well, don’t say ‘my opinion’ for a start or use associated terms like ‘In my view…..’  Focus on facts, not just personal views.
Unless the feedback is going to achieve the desired change – then don’t give it.  Otherwise it becomes opinion.  In the Italian food example I didn’t change the other person’s view (perhaps only that the person wouldn’t eat Italian in front of me or order me Italian food).

If you do find yourself in the position of being offered (or told) the opinion of someone:

Listen.
Ask them to clarify, to explain.
Listen.

Example:

Customer: ‘In my opinion you don’t understand the problem here, if you did – you wouldn’t be doing that for a start.’

You: ‘OK, thanks, can you go into a little more detail?  Just so I understand exactly what it is you require.’

They now have to clarify or explain the rationale for their ‘opinion’, and this becomes effective feedback.

It’s not to say opinion is bad, it has to be taken into context, and if your intention is to get that person’s personal view of something – then opinion is now in the right context.

So remember, when asking for someone’s opinion you will get their personal view, which may not match the view of others as a general rule.  Also, that giving your opinion may not necessarily change or be acted upon.

Please note: this article is based purely on my opinion……..

‘2 Ways to Improve Customer Service’

If I was asked to choose the top two tips from all the, ’10 of the…’, ‘8 Ways…’, ‘The 12 absolute…’ lists, guides, acronyms that you come across within Customer Service I would choose:

Apply the message within Maya Angelou’s (American Poet, 1928-1914) quote: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ The key here within customer service is how you make people ‘feel’. We always remember good and bad customer experiences through our memory recall, and these recalls also invoke the feelings we felt at the time. So, to ensure a good, positive customer experience we have to ensure that our behaviours, attitude and environment provide a pleasant experience for the customer.


‘Seek first to understand, then be understood’ – Stephen R. Covey, 5th Habit of his ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. Ensure you know what the customer wants, by understanding their perception, expectation and reality. Only having understood these can you then go onto deliver on their expectation, or manage their expectation.

5 Reasons Why Your Customer Service is Failing

The 5 key areas that I have come across when dealing with clients and running customer service workshops with regards to failing customer service would be:

By not applying the top two tips above!
Becoming over complacent, and not respecting your customer.
Not delivering, or not following up or explaining why you couldn’t deliver.
Bad manners and being un-professional.
Not taking ownership of the issue, that is, leaving the customer with the feeling that they are on their own. The key word in customer service is ‘service’ – i.e. ‘’the action of helping or doing work for someone’.  Somehow this message in some organisations seems to have crossed purposes in training! In a lot of cases you are often made to feel that they are doing you a favour and you are the one that should be eternally grateful! Again, we can see how strong Maya Angelou’s message is – because this is all about how you make people feel.

In essence, the PROUD principles, within the book: ‘PROUD: Achieving Customer Service Excellence’ encapsulate all the above, and more. This is achieved by utilising one of the most emotive and inspirational words to produce a memorable acronym, providing the aspirational goal within customer service. It’s an holistic model that can be applied to any discipline, organisation and level, including your own personal life and self-development. It really could be the only customer service acronym you will ever need.

What if…..

What if – you were treated indifferently as a customer?

What if – the person serving you never smiled, or said ‘thank you’, or acknowledged your presence?

What if – the person serving you ignored your wishes and gave you what they thought you should have or had available?

What if – the person serving you never got back, or gave your problem to someone else, leaving you having to start all over again?Would you be happy about this?There are hundreds of ‘What if….’ scenarios that can denote bad customer experiences; and these, as well as others, happen all the time.

But, what if…. there was a simple way to overcome the majority of these – would that be of interest?  I’m sure it would.

The majority of customer service problems are, and can be, attributed to human factors and behaviours.  The key word in customer service is ‘service’.  That is, ‘the action of helping or doing work for someone’.  The next part (but put first) is ‘customer’.  That is, customer service is: ‘the action of helping or doing work for someone’ – i.e. the customer.

How many times have you been in a situation where the sales or customer service person makes you feel that they may be providing a ‘service’ – and you should be grateful for this.  (Perhaps they seem to have misinterpreted the message.)

We are all familiar with the customer service maxims of ‘going the extra mile’, ‘the customer is always right’, etc., but it’s the basic human behaviours that contribute to the overall customer experience.  This is where PROUD comes in, providing an holistic principle that can be adopted by any profession, discipline and market; even becoming a basic standard to follow in your own personal life.

Understanding and applying the PROUD principle can, and will, make a difference to customer service.  It’s simple, practical, elegant – but above all – it makes complete sense.

I’m passionate about customer service.  I believe that it’s a simple, easy concept.  It’s not difficult, and it’s one of the mains reason why I developed PROUD.

Only the other day I was in a well known high street retailer that I know has undergone a large customer service programme a short time ago. Unfortunately, I had a bad experience at this store with one of the staff.  I passed this off as an exception.  But I then returned a day later only to be treated to poor service by a separate individual.  I then took a little time out and observed the staff with other customers (just in case it was me!)  After 5 minutes I realised that all the staff treated the customers the same.

Using PROUD as a gauge, I could see that at the basic level of being polite and professional, they failed straight away.  They were rude, and indifferent to the customer, their attitude was though they were doing you a favour by being there.  Failing at the first hurdle had a big impact, as the customer (and I was one) immediately adopts coping mechanisms – either fight (being slightly more assertive or having to justify why they want help), or flight (walk away and not get the information they need, for example).

Needless to say, as one of the key points made in any customer service programme – bad service meant that I wouldn’t be using them again in a hurry; and yes, I will be telling other people.

‘PROUD is to customer service, as SMART is to goal setting, and GROW is to coaching.’

Proud is one of the most powerful and emotive words in the English language.

What if this powerful word could provide a simple, comprehensive framework to achieve excellent customer service, as well as embody the full essence of the word?

The PROUD model provides this and more.

It builds into a set of key principles in achieving excellent customer service.  Through its simplicity and ease of use it can create a unified customer-focused culture within an organisation.  It can be applied to any customer situation in any sector, discipline, or profession; it also crosses over easily from business to personal use, making it a fully flexible and adaptive model.

Once you understand the PROUD model and its principles you will appreciate its power to achieve a consistent, excellent customer service experience from start to finish.

‘Probably the only customer service acronym you will ever need.’

Read the book: ‘PROUD – Achieving Customer Service Excellence’ – Amazon/Kindle.

Alternatively, contact John to enquire about his ‘PROUD – Achieving Customer Service Excellence©’ workshop.

John is the Director of PMR Training and Development Ltd., www.pmrtraining.co.uk a leadership and management development consultancy.