Isn't Customer Service Part of EVERY Role?

I remember several years ago, I had this conversation with one of my kids, and what precipitated this discussion was the fact that he didn’t like one of his teachers, so he was choosing to not do well in that class. He also thought the class was unnecessary, boring, etc. If you have or have had a middle school student, you can imagine the adjectives he used to describe that class...

In an attempt to “reset” his attitude about the teacher and the class, I told him that middle school is really just a “sandbox” in which the students are learning how to be responsible, respectful, and productive adults. Don’t we as adults have to attend meetings that we think are pointless? And don’t we sometimes have to work with or for people that we don’t like or maybe even respect? Of course we do, but we still have to be responsible, respectful, and productive if we want to keep our jobs.

Then he said something like, “I’m never going to have to work with people,” to which I replied, “You’ll always have to work with people. In fact, I can’t think of one job where you not only have to work with people, but also have to provide quality customer service, which means you’ll have to be responsible, respectful, and productive in meeting their needs.”

That stopped him (for just a minute though… remember, he was in middle school), and I could tell he was contemplating what I said. I could tell he was trying to think of a job where that wasn’t true. He named several jobs, such as farmer, construction worker, or carpenter. Not to be beaten by a 13-year old, I had to be quick on my feet, and said, “A farmer has to think about what his customers (which is everyone who eats) want and need. If the market demands tofu and there’s less demand for gluten-based products, then the farmers will produce more soybeans than wheat if they want to be successful. A construction worker has to construct what the customers (taxpayers, building owners, etc.) want, and they have to do it well, according to what the customer requires if they want to get paid. And a carpenter has to build cabinets to fit in each customer’s home according to the style and color each customer requests. If not, they’ll get bad reviews and lose potential business.” This didn’t stop him dead in his tracks, but I remember that the conversation ended, probably because he wanted to argue about something else…

But that conversation has largely impacted my own state of mind, in that every job requires good customer service skills. This is easy for me to say, since I manage projects and initiatives that impact many stakeholders, but it’s also true for every other employee in IT, even if they rarely see or speak to customers. What they do makes a difference in stakeholders’ lives and therefore, they must have good customer service skills by considering how the work they do will impact the users, what options they have in making decisions, and how they appropriately communicate changes to the organization in terms that everyone can understand. If everyone realized this and responded accordingly, think of how much better everything would be, both as employees and customers!