Customer service is about technology, business processes and people. It is also about mindfulness and imagination. Here are a few service conversations triggered by story. 

Technology

This story of the woman dissatisfied with her husband, set in the year 2500, illustrates how advanced technology can disappoint.
The woman decides to replace herself with a robot so identical to herself that the husband will never know the difference. When the job is done, the manufacturer points out that there is one small difficulty: instead of a heartbeat, the robot has a sixty-cycle hum – like that of electric motors, fluorescent lights.
So the plan is that when the robot first gets together with the husband, it will record and adapt his heartbeat. That night the woman sneaks off for a night on the town after releasing her identical duplicate robot to go to the husband. When she sneaks back in after her night out and checks with the robot to see how things went, she is told that it couldn’t detect the husband’s heartbeat. All it could pick up was a sixty-cycle hum.

How much do we rely on technology to affect service delivery? Are we sometimes seduced by extravagant technology claims without realizing true service benefits? Do we as service leaders concentrate sufficiently on the people and values factors, recognizing that technology remains simply an enabler?

Business Processes
I’ve had the good fortune in my business process design work to visit some pre-eminent service providers and learn more about how slick, fast, customer-facing processes contribute to vastly improved service – whether via the internet, in a contact centre or on the shop floor.  A Harvard Business School case study1 lauds the Federal Express overnight package delivery service. Their service is based on a solid understanding that “waiting is frustrating, demoralizing, agonizing, aggravating, annoying, time consuming and incredibly expensive”. All of us know the anxiety and frustration involved in waiting, and that real time is often much shorter than experienced and perceived time. Witness the important pre-interview wait, the late bus, the post office waiting line, the hung-up computer screen, the slow and inattentive petrol pump attendant, or the customer contact centre process where the sequence is something like:

A long wait while the phone rings…………………..a recorded set of advertising messages and a recorded voice that tells you that you are a valued customer, number 30 in the waiting line, please hold and your call will be answered by the next (un)available agent, press 1 for this, 2 for that, 3 to hold, enter your ID, customer and other numbers, wait some more, and then you get through to someone who can’t help you…………..

At Disney World in Orlando I was enchanted by the efforts they went to in order to make perceived time shorter than real time: snaking waiting lines, regular information on the time to the event or experience you were waiting for, little Disney creatures that suddenly popped up out of the ground to do a dance or say something to you, Disney actors who would approach and regale waiting people with shows and stories, food vendors……………..before you knew it you were there.

People

To be in the ‘flow zone’ and perform effortlessly, calmly, in a relaxed manner and with focus we need to find real purpose, meaning and bliss in the work that we do. We need also to practice mindfulness and imagination while we work - especially during our interactions with others - when listening to their troubles, triumphs and tales, values and needs. Mindfulness and Imagination are at the heart of the latest leading edge thinking in business, for example Otto Scharmer’s Theory U. 2

MINDFUL PEOPLE.  A key aspect of world-class service is the practice of mindfulness. Eastern religions, as did early Christianity, have long practiced meditation in order to become grounded in the present, be aware and become mindful of what is happening within and around, to themselves, their environment and others. Western research is now slowly discovering the scientific validity of such practices, for example:

From Mindfulness and Psychotherapy3: 

"Mindful meditation practice increases activation in an area of the brain associated with compassion. Authentic connection is the core of quality relationships and mindfulness is a practice that opens and deepens our capacities for connection".

"Mindfulness practice enhances the capacity for attention. Empathy is a function of attention (cognitive) and compassion (feelings, attitudes)". 

We remember and recount those times when our doctor, CEO or somebody in another company, despite their busy day, offered us the gift of their attention. We felt that we mattered.

IMAGINATIVE PEOPLE. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Group are noted for their superior, warm and efficient service. They are driven by a clear customer service credo and well-defined service values. People selection, business processes and supporting technology are designed to anticipate customer requirements, and to ensure that service breakdowns are quickly recovered.

I had only one hour to spare between the end of a conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead, Atlanta, USA  -  and leaving for the airport. I was keen to buy a saxophone. I casually mentioned this to the receptionist at lunch time. By the close of the conference she had organized my checkout and on her own initiative, arranged for three music stores to remain open in case I called, given me clear directions, and arranged transport. I purchased my saxophone, and still play it to this day!

My experience was a function of an empowered, trained staff member having the right service motive, (mindfully) putting herself in my shoes, imagining a good solution, and executing it perfectly. This is what customer experience management is all about.

As Einstein has pointed out: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

Conversations around technology, process and mindful, imaginative people, triggered by story, are guaranteed to lead to significant and sustained customer service improvements.

References:

1. The Psychology of Waiting Lines Harvard Business School Case Study Reference: 9-684-064 May 16, 1984
2. Scharmer, Otto  Theory U: leading from the future as it emerges  Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc  San Francisco  2009
3. Ed Germer, Chrisopher K, Siegel, Ronald D, Fulton, Paul R Mindfulness and Psychotherapy  The Guilford Press  New York, London  2005

The author:
Graham Williams is a thought-leader for the Institute of Management Consultants in South Africa, author of Centre-ing Customer Satisfaction and founder of Centre-ing Services, a company active around the world in leadership development, customer service delivery and steering transition successfully. He finds that the power of story is universal, crossing all boundaries. Graham’s formal disciplines are psychology, economics and business economics, and he is an NLP practitioner.
eMail: centserv@iafrica.com   
URL: http://www.centre-ingservice.com 
Story Resource for Businesses: http://www.haloandnoose.com