In 1979, long before customer service came into vogue, I designed the world’s first customer service training program. I felt that if organizations would make their customers feel special, wanted, and appreciated, they would have loyal customers.  The way to do that was by giving front line employees the needed tools to deliver great service and to create impressions that form an organization’s reputation.

I have a concise and practical list of six essential customer service principles for awesome service. These "Personal Steps of Excellence" would go well in a frame on your office wall and those of your general managers.

Most organizations in the world believe they deliver awesome service. To reinforce this, firms spend most of their money on surveys. With every transaction they want a survey. The NPS score is critical for so many firms. They tend to be everywhere and customers are bombarded with e-mail or online survey offers from companies who want to know their opinons about their products, services, etc.  The problem is most customers think customer service is lousy. Most people would have trouble identifying 5 firms that deliver exceptional service.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented

individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” â€“ Stephen King

We’ve heard it since childhood.  We’ve heard it from parents, teachers, and friends…“You just have stick to it and try (work) harder”.  Success is more a combination of how hard one is willing to work or practice than the God given talents we are born with.

Very few organizations know they are in Customer Service.  As we’ve seen recently, United Airlines is in the transportation business. Home Depot, on the other hand, is focusing on the Customer Experience. 

Very few organizations know they are in Customer Service. 

Sometimes we learn more from what goes wrong.

The most difficult skill to get almost any employees to use is Empowerment. Trying to get an employee to make a fast, empowered, decision in favor of a customer takes two miracles at one time. Regardless of how committed the CEO is, it is almost impossible to get your employees to spend even $5 without asking their supervisor or manager for permission.