It's about People, stupid.

A few days ago I wrote about findings by Ken Blanchard that good customer service requires inspired people. Let me share this story with you that totally underlines the point.


No, I am not offending my readers but clearly remember this as a title of someone's presentation which I use to make my point here.

I live in Toronto, Canada. Over the years the same 'postie' has always delivered the mail at the house and I have gotten to know this very nice chap. I talked to him on many occasions and we always waved to each other when I was walking the dog which he liked and often he even carried dog treats with him. Last year I moved house and bought from Canada Post a 6-months forwarding subscription. A couple of months after it expired I happened to park my car in my old street on my way to a lunch appointment and saw 'my postie'. I said Hello and he was delighted to see me and of course asked about my dog. He then mentioned that at the station some more of my mail had piled up since the subscription had expired. Although I told him that I was quite certain that by now only junk mail would continue to be sent to my old address he made a really surprising offer to me. He said: "I know where you live now… this is on my way home… I am not supposed to do this but I will drop it off for you… ". Lo and behold, that afternoon the promised mail was in my mail box!!! [never mind that I was right about it being junk mail].

Now, Canada Post is heavily unionized and the postal unions were for years very antagonistic, in the face of antagonistic management. But, things have changed fortunately. In this environment, here is a real customer service hero doing what he believes is right for 'his customers'. There is actually an old saying in this business: "Good People are stopped by Bad Management and Bad Process".

Of course, great service begins and ends with good people, such as "my" postie. They have the right stuff between their ears and are unsung customer service heroes. Actually, this experience made me determined to continue to point out to my clients early in my engagements that they need to take a look at their hiring policies and process.

If you want to create a customer focused culture where service excellence is the norm, throughout the organization [externally as well as internally], you have to hire right. Everybody needs to have "the right stuff". I always recommend pre-employment testing and not even to interview a person unless (s)he has passed a basic service aptitude testing hurdle. Skills can be trained but not aptitude.

Of course the People dimension of Customer Focus has more to it, but if in creating great customer service experience "It's about People, stupid…", then this is a great starting point.


What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com