Top Customer Service Speaker Says Forget About Service Focus On Satisfaction

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

"I really LOVE my customers," I heard one agent gush.

"My customers ADORE me!" another one boasted.

"I always try to do something EXTRA," confides a third.

Ask most customer service managers what they would think about these three reps and they'd probably beam with pride and be elated.

Each rep sounds as if she is reaching for the stars, never satisfied, and always achieving.

I hate to bear bad news, but they're all off the mark.

Customer SERVICE is about what WE do, the techniques we use, and the feelings we have.

But customer SATISFACTION is about something entirely different.

Satisfaction is about the RESULTS we produce for customers, and it's the single most important thing we need to focus on arousing, time and again.

But, you might wonder, if I'm enthusiastic and fully committed to delivering the best service in the world, my customers will just have to appreciate me and my company, right?

NOPE.

Peter F. Drucker, one of my revered professors, an international giant in the field of management, and a consultant to several nations, including Japan and Brazil, wrote a seminal book, called MANAGING FOR RESULTS.

Please study those three words very carefully.

Drucker's view is that there is far too much attention paid to the mechanics of business, to the actions we take, to our internal processes of developing and delivering and servicing products, and not enough attention paid to what customers truly value.

What we like and what we value has to come second, Drucker maintains.

The customer is the alpha and omega of our business lives, and for all of our protean efforts, if the customer doesn't think they matter, they don't matter.

Drucker has a wonderful way of cutting through the fluff and our self-delusions, especially in customer service.

He asks two basic questions that are remarkable and worth contemplating:

(1) What is "service," defined from the customer's viewpoint?

(2) If you were to un-bundle what you're calling "service," and charge separately for it, would customers gladly and willingly pay the price, or say, "No, thank-you"?

Drucker is really asking, "What satisfies customers?" Once we know the right answer, we should do ONLY that, and nothing else. We're being paid only to create satisfactions and customer value.

Moreover, if the answer to the second question is that customer would NOT pay value for you are currently calling "service," then start focusing on satisfaction, instead.

Whatever you do, don't mosey along the same path you've been using.

"Service" is a dead end.

"Satisfaction" is what brings them back, makes them sing our praises, and rings the cash register down the road ahead.

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 850 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard"--the foremost expert in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.