Everyone provides customer service. The departments all have different names, and sometimes it isn’t even called “customer service†anything, it’s just a daily part of the person’s job. Take teaching for instance – the position of teaching requires you to sell your product, the lesson, to your students, and help resolve concerns that any parent may bring up throughout the school year. It’s a built-in customer service department that is constantly running from the beginning to the end of the teacher’s day.
Taking a leaf out of the teachers’ books may help those of us in the service industry make some positive changes in their daily lives and improve performance and morale. We all know that customers want freedom of choice, flexibility, and convenience, and we work hard to provide that for them. But teachers have to go just that one step farther in providing customer service, to truly engage their “buyers.†What can we stand to learn from this position?
#3: Hard work pays itself off. Both teaching positions and customer service positions can feel like an overlooked, underappreciated gig. But the payoffs, when you really consider it, are enormous. With a teaching position you are able to see your students grow, your parents learn as much as your pupils, and your community improve and change on your influence. The same thing happens as a customer service agent, when you are able to see each and every customer become a satisfied individual with an improved lifestyle, a positive attitude toward your company, and a good chance of recommending your services to others that they know.
#2: Don’t sell your product, believe in your product. Teaching a lesson lives and dies on the enthusiasm of the teacher. Getting engaged and displaying a real interest in your lesson, or your product, has a dramatic effect on how your audience will respond. With this in mind it’s easy to reorganize your pitching method to have that extra something that will really hook a potential client’s intrigue. If you love it, people can tell.
#1: Always respond calmly and professionally. When your customer escalates, it is on your plate to keep a level head and respond with a compassionate, listening ear, rather than escalating right back. Deescalating a student’s frustration or mitigating an angry parental concern has huge impacts on the school, the school board, and the community. If we treat every customer as though their impact on our communities is huge (which it is!), then we will see a vast improvement on the compassion we can show for their concern.
The world outside of the customer service industry is not so disconnected as it seems. You can find unexpected lessons everywhere if you look hard enough!