Can You Render Humble Service?
I was re-reading the book, THINK AND GROW RICH, by Napoleon Hill, and I can’t tell you how impressive this self-help classic still is!
Among other fascinating sections, Hill explains “The Ten Major Causes of Failure In Leadership.”
“Unwillingness to render humble service” is the one that caught my eye and instantly I was transported back to Columbus, Ohio where I was training hundreds of customer service people at a major company.
Some of these folks were true misfits; they had no business being in a customer service capacity, because they really and truly disdained helping others.
This came out as we were implementing my Call Path for service, which has a line in it that is particularly effective in putting listeners at ease:
“Sure, I’ll be happy to help you with that!”
“I can’t say that” a few of my trainees claimed.
“Why, not?”
“Because it sounds fake!”
“Why is that?” I asked, knowing this line had proven itself in millions of calls at my clients’ sites.
“Because it isn’t me; I just wouldn’t say thatthat’s all.”
And we went around and around, until I had an epiphany, which I shared with these reluctant people right away. I said:
“The only reason it would sound phony is if YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO HELP THEM, IF YOU’RE NOT HAPPY DOING IT!”
This was an amazing moment, because none of these trainees could dispute it; we had hit some kind of bedrock truth.
To borrow from Hill, they couldn’t comfortably render humble service; they were so full of themselves.
If you feel this way, and you deal with customers directly, do everybody a favor, including you: resign as soon as possible!
It’s impossible to consistently satisfy customers if you’re only committed to self-service.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.
