Surely you have heard of the phrase “Talk is cheap” several times in your life, or at least you have heard of it. Well, if there’s one thing that’s really getting cheap these days, it’s “Customer Service.” Every commercial establishment, big or small, talks about it…but who’s really doing it?
Let me give you some of my worst customer service cases.
Box #1:
A bank that received the “best customer service” award used to be my bank. Aside from the agent who helped me during my first time at your bank, none of the people there were friendly. One day, I called your office for help with my PayPal account. The lady on the phone got impatient with me because she was busy. That’s when I decided to close my account with them.
Box #2:
Our church had a 3 year contract with a leading alarm company. When we moved to another place, we signed another contract with this company, not knowing that they added another two years to our contract. To make matters worse, we began to receive two invoices: the previous one and the one for the new contract. I then called their office to file a complaint and they told me to fax them a letter. I faxed a letter and called them again and was informed that they did not receive any. They passed me from one person to another (which is what happens every time I call them). This went on and on and so far we still have some issues with them.
Box #3:
My husband called a leading mobile phone service provider to inquire about plans. He was convinced of his service and made the decision to order and pay over the phone. We were shocked when we received our first bill. There were many hidden costs that were never explained to him. But it was too late because we were already locked into a contract.
So where is the customer service here?
I think that what is happening is that the pressure to win more is prevailing over the service. The focus is “me” more than others. Sales agents, supervisors, and managers have to meet their quota, so their focus is more on meeting the quota than serving the customer.
This should not be the case, even more so for us Christians. We Christians have to set higher standards for ourselves. We have to outdo the world with the way they deal with each other. We have to be people of excellence. Jesus’ approach is always “serving” and “building relationships.” He said in Matthew 6:33: Seek me first and all these other things will be added to you. If God is truly first in our lives, then we will follow his Word and have the same character that he has. If we consider our jobs or professions as our ministry and use them for the glory of God, we will be serving others more than ourselves. And if we know that we are serving him and giving him priority, then there is no need to worry about our future.
The sad thing is that many Christians still do not understand this. A brother in the Lord posted a commercial promotion on my wall and I reminded him that more than promoting his business, he has to be building relationships with people, and that God will send the right people to support him in his business. . I think I woke him up a bit because he started to get defensive. He said that he needs to feed his family. who does not???
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t promote our businesses or set high goals for ourselves. What I am saying is that we have to focus more on serving others.
I have a professional writing business. And since I have learned to give and offer everything to God, I have offered him this business from day one. I must admit there are days when I feel pressured to make more money and I can easily do so by taking on more clients than I can handle and then not following through on my commitments to them. But because I stick to the “service orientation” of the Bible, I give my best to my clients, which means I have to put quality before quantity. And yes, quantity translates into more revenue, but in the long run, quality will lead to more satisfied customers, which in turn will lead to more profit for the business.
Let me end this topic by sharing with you an experience I have had in the past as a Real Estate professional.
I worked as Director of Sales for a Real Estate Marketing company in the Philippines. I had sales people below me and managers above me. My bosses put so much pressure on me that I also had to do some personal selling. To cut a long story short, they told us what was wrong with our projects and also taught us how to mislead our clients by focusing on the strengths of the projects. They also taught us different types of closing techniques that sounded more like cheating than negotiating. I just couldn’t do what we were told to do. I used my own style of building relationships, which most of my agents followed, and we surely didn’t meet our quotas. I left the company after a while, started my own business, applied my style of relationship building and service orientation and God blessed my business.
The relationships I have built with my previous clients have been very helpful when God called me into full-time ministry. These clients who trusted me and respected me supported my ministry. This trust and support exceeds all the money I have earned during those years in my previous business. And that’s what customer service is all about.