Essential Skills for Everyone: Customer Service
People skills are essential to working in the modern business environment. Whether you are just a student learning from someone, or working with your boss, or selling to customers, there is an element of people skills in everything that can help dictate your success. I have talked about communication skills here before but today I am going to take a different perspective and incorporate elements of customer service.
Customer service can have many elements depending on the context. It can mean being a good listener, a quick problem solver, an effective communicator, or being able to prioritize the demands of everyone around you. When people see the term customer service on a resume, it generally applies to either salespeople or retail positions that interact directly with customers. These positions are a great way for someone to get experience with the people skills they need to succeed. However, many people are not able to make the connection between the customer service skills in a retail job and how those same skills can be used in a different environment.
I’m Not in Sales or Retail, Why Does This Matter?
One day it occurred to me that my job as a CPA requires more customer service than I initially thought. I started thinking of everyone as a customer who could enjoy good customer service and it greatly improved my interactions with everyone I worked with. That includes my clients (who many people think of as the traditional recipients of customer service), my bosses, my coworkers, and delegates such as interns and new staff. Let's explore each of these real quick:
Clients
Clients are paying my firm directly for my services and they are in a traditional sense the customer. I have been trained to work hard and develop a consistent friendly and clear line of communication to get things done with them.
Bosses
My bosses are paying me for my time and rely on me to get things done. Oftentimes when I am serving my clients, I am working with my bosses as well to help get the job done, and they need the same attention and communication as the clients for everything to be done effectively.
Coworkers
Even though my coworkers are not paying me (I wish they would), we are often working together towards the same collective goal such as finishing a project or working on a client deliverable. This means it is important for me to give them my time and attention to make sure they are taken care of so we can achieve our goals together.
Delegates
There is a saying in business that the boss works for the employees and not the other way around. This is incredibly true in the professional world because the person with the most experience is in the position to direct and help the less experienced members of their team get the job done. When I am working with an intern or a newer staff, their development is critical to their success and my success. This means that I need to ensure they are understanding their work and they have a good experience.
What all these parties have in common is that they can benefit from clear and proactive communication, timely status updates, and empathy, which are core elements of customer service. I am not saying that you need to wait on your boss and refill his glass of water and when it becomes half empty like a waiter in a restaurant. But, if you start to see more people as the recipients of your customer service, you could see a massive improvement in your ability to work with others as a result.
So, give it a shot! Since you made it all the way to the end I'm going to challenge you to take a week or month out of your life and start treating everyone around you as a recipient of your customer service. You will not be disappointed by the results!