Every task we complete, every conversation we have, every analysis we put together has a customer service angle. Every single person doing “things” has a customer. Employees have bosses. Bosses have shareholders. Politicians have voters and donors. Parents have kids. Kids have friends. Software interfaces have users. Databases have analysts. We all have customers.
It’s easy to provide great customer service when everything is going great. You don’t even have to think about customer service when there’s nothing going wrong, it just takes care of itself. But things don’t always go to plan.
Difficult conversations are one of the easiest ways to turn a customer off. These conversations are by their very nature going to have tension with a good chance of on-going discord. If you want to deliver good customer service, you must be willing and able to have difficult conversations. Typically this just means keeping your head, looking at the problem from the other side’s perspective, and seeking a resolution rather than assigning blame.
The funny thing about knowing how to have difficult conversations, they help you in every other aspect of what you do. If you fear difficult conversations, you will avoid being in positions that could lead to them. You may even hold back information that could lead to difficult conversations, instead opting for moderate positions.
Being good at customer service in bad situations is how many leaders ultimately build their careers and companies. If you can offer good customer service, you can steal customers from those bad to mediocre firms and also charge a premium. If you can offer good customer service, you are more likely to recruit quality employees. If you are great at customer service, you’ll establish a culture of excellence that does more than simply do the little things right.