Building a Customer Service Coaching Culture

What is Customer Service?

How do you build a team that is focused on providing the best service to your clients?

How do you make this a standard in your company?

These are some of the questions that have been asked, again and again, since I got involved in Operations & Customer Service. Most people that I’ve talked to know and agree that delivering the best service to customers is a competitive advantage and builds the connection with customers and future clients. So, how come Good Customer Service seems to be “non-existent” in a lot of businesses?

This question reminds me of a quote, “The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.” -Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

We at Haraya Coaching are continuously inspired by the teachings of Simon Sinek, and this quote reminds us that the way to creating a Customer Service Culture is to create a safe environment where teams share their ideas and work together to develop a customer-centered strategy and encourage potential clients to become advocates of their company. When employees have a strong positive connection with the company they belong to and when they believe in and value their role in achieving the company’s vision, these feelings can easily translate into positive connections with the customers.

Over the years that we have been developing and facilitating Customer Service Workshops, we have realized that Coaching is a great tool to drive awareness and self-motivation in creating a Customer-centered Service in the companies we have worked with.

So what is Coaching?

ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Coaching provides a process which creates the “sticky-ness” factor for team members to reach a self-awareness about their role in the team and how they can contribute in the development of their own Customer-centered Culture, according to their Company’s WHY (vision & mission). Training and workshops give the team members the tools to perform their jobs, while Coaching allows them to develop a self-awareness and be inspired to use these tools to endear their company/product to customers and potential clients. As Simon Sinek says, “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”

In this world of fast-paced technology innovations, products can easily be copied, and the differentiating advantage for companies will be the people who believe in the company and will help promote the company. To develop this competitive advantage, it is the role of leaders to create a safe environment of learning where team members will be inspired to bring out their best.