When is Customer Service Day?
Apparently, yesterday was Customer Service Day … or was it?
“Customer Service Day is on January the 17th. At least, it is in America. Not sure about the rest of the world.” That’s what the article on the internet said … but I couldn’t find any other reference to it.
The “article” was on a site of teaching materials for teaching English as a Second Language, (esl), A piece of text followed by various exercises where the student has to do things like chose the most appropriate word from a list to put in a gap, or put a group of randomly arranged words into a proper sentence.
Personally, I’m not sure how effect the exercises would be as they all seem to be based on one piece of text and anyone with a bit of common sense just has to go back to the passage at the top to get the right answers, but even if I was a teacher in an earlier life, I wasn’t an esl teacher and I am prepared to be told that even this demonstrates a useful “skill” for someone working in a foreign language and helps to reinforce the language and skills being developed.
The text also has a number of open ended questions which are obviously intended as discussion starters. That seemed to me to be more useful.
However, I have other issues with this particular exercise … to do with the content.
Even if we ignore the idiomatic colloquialism, “Not sure about the rest of the world”, (after all, once again I am prepared to be told that such colloquial, everyday, expressions are an important feature of any successful teaching of a foreign language … and I certainly find a knowledge of such informal expressions useful in day-to-day life), there are other issues with the text.
The first is … where did this idea that January 17th is Customer Service Day come from? The text seems to imply that it is a recognised day, “at least” in America. The purpose of the day, according to the text, was to serve as “a day for companies and businesses to reflect on the importance of providing good customer service. It’s also a day for customer service managers and staff to explore new ways to keep the customer happy.”
I was excited by that and thought it would be a good chance to do some training on the topic. As I said, however, a quick search of the internet revealed nothing … zip … be it in America or anywhere else. I could find references to Customer Service Weeks, but there was nothing about a specific day being dedicated officially by the UN, or any other body for that matter.
I suppose it is possible that the author came across an organization which designated January 17th as Customer Service Day and they decided to use the fact as material for a lesson. Fair enough.
If the aim of the day was to be “a day for companies and businesses to reflect on the importance of providing good customer service. It’s also a day for customer service managers and staff to explore new ways to keep the customer happy”, that seemed very laudable.
Customer orientated service is vital to success in our line of business and, I suppose, any business. I see that yesterday the new Minister for the Economy in a statement to a parliamentary committee noted that “25% of the economy rests on agriculture, 43% – in trade relations and the provision of services, with 5-7% sector of the financial sector. “
Despite that, the idea of “service” isn’t always a feature of life here in Kyrgyzstan where there is still a tendency to think that it is the role of the state to look after citizens literally “from the cradle to the grave”, providing accommodation, jobs and for every possible need. I suppose it is a hangover from the soviet system.
As a result, some people seem to think that their jobs, place of employment, are provided for them, the employees, and not for the customer. I am constantly pointing out to people that there is nothing guaranteed or inevitable about their employment. It all depends on the customer being prepared to buy goods and services from you, as opposed to from a competitor, It is the customer that pays for their salaries and makes their continued employment possible. If they want to ensure continuous employment then it is important that customers are satisfied with the service they receive or else they will simply take their business elsewhere … and who can blame them. “Try putting yourself in their shoes …”, I tell people, “… they have a choice and don’t have to do business with you.”
That’s not to mention the fact that a dissatisfied customer is likely to tell others, recommending them to go elsewhere … any where but to you, if they receive less than satisfactory service. “When you see a customer in front of you, don’t think them as only one person … think of the queue that stands behind them: relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances … and think of what they will say about you.”
So, I had no problem with that.
The next sentence in the article, however, hit a raw nerve with me: “This is the day when the customer really is always right.” I was pleased to see that the author recognized that the customer is not, as the old adage puts it, “always right”, but I was disturbed by the thought that on this day – they are. I have said before, “The customer is not always right … but they do have rights!” Amongst those are the right to receive goods and services which should be according to the advertised, offered, and agreed and concomitant to the price that they are paying. They have the right to be treated with courtesy and fairly; to be listened to and heard when they want to say something, for example to complain, and to have their thoughts and wishes taken into account. They are certainly not “right” and probably even surrender their rights, when they, themselves, behave improperly, lie or steal.
I prefer to think of it, as the author puts it later in the article, this way: that the “Customer is King”.
The article continued with, “If everything goes according to plan on Customer Service Day, customers will come again, and again, and again,” the article continues. Although this seems reasonable, I have two problems with it … One is that this seems to suggest that Customer Service is something for emphasis only on one day … not so, If “a puppy is not just for Christmas but for life”, then Customer Service is not for just for one day … it has to be ingrained, part of our character. To be fair, the author recognizes this later in the text when they ask: “What do you think of Customer Service Day? Don’t you think it should be every day?”
The second is that the result does not depend just on us … there are other ‘players’ to consider … the customer, (after all it is his choice), and our competitors. As well as thinking of the long queue behind the customer, we have to think of the people at our side, our competitors vying for the attention of the customer. Our job is to do the best that we can, to make ourselves the “obvious choice” and persuade the client that this is so.
Two pieces of useful advice followed. The first was that” Staff should always go the extra mile for customers and remember that service is always with a smile.” Although I would have preferred to say that staff should always be prepared to go “the extra mile” … if they do their jobs well, then it shouldn’t be necessary. It suggests that standards are set too low. On the other hand, the importance of the smile cannot be underestimated. It costs nothing and can be welcoming and friendly … so long, that is, that it is a genuine smile and not a “fixed” one painted on because “it’s expected”.
The second, that “Customer Service Day is also the time for bosses to thank their hardest-working customer service representatives” seemed particularly pertinent. As Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mark Anthony in his eulogy for Julius Caesar, the good that men do “is often interred with their bones”. Good work and good service often goes unrecognized and so, although it should be a continuous and ongoing thought in our minds, it would be good to have a day to focus on this aspect of our employees work and remind us that it needs recognition.
What struck me as quite a good question was: “Are companies most interested in “keeping the customer satisfied,” or are they just interested in profits?” The key word in the sentence is “just”. Of course the two options are interrelated. Business is obviously interested in profit … unless it is a non-commercial organization, then profit is their raison d’être. On the other hand, as I have tried to say, giving good customer service is likely to lead to continued success and profit.
Now, I understand that the purpose behind the webpage was present source materials which could be used in teaching an English class for foreigners, and not for students of Business or Economics. As such it was designed as a prompt to raise issues for exercises and discussion. Despite that, as it happens, I think it would have been useful material to use in a training course … and I may well do so in the future … but when … That brings me back to the opening question: When is Customer Service Day?
Bishkek