Customer service should be a high priority for any business. But is it possible to go overboard?
One of my favorite aspects of Inc. magazine is their monthly "The Way I Work" series, which zooms in on the daily life of a successful entrepreneur. Last month Inc. covered Kayak co-founder Paul English, highlighting his focus on customer service:
These two paragraphs stood out for me:
"About a year ago, I bought a red telephone with a really loud ringer for the office. Whenever a customer calls the help number on our website, that phone rings. The engineers initially complained about it. They said, 'That's so friggin' annoying!' And I'd say, 'There's a really simple solution: Answer the friggin' phone and do whatever it takes to make that customer happy. Then hang up, unplug the phone, walk it down to the other end of the office, and plug it in down there.'
It's like hot potato. Except I take it seriously. When the phone rings, I literally jump over the desks just so I can get to the phone before anyone else. I love talking to customers, even angry ones. I learn a lot from them about how to make the site easier to use. When the call's over, I'll say, 'If you have any follow-up questions, my name is Paul English; I'm the co-founder of the company.' I'll give out my personal cell-phone number. Only one out of 20 people might actually call, but they're blown away when I do that."
I find myself wondering if this scenario would read differently if the employees were interviewed. Those two paragraphs are full of "I" and not a single "we." What would it be like to work in that environment? Does an obsession with customer service foster accountability and creativity... or distraction?
Perhaps this is related to a broader battle about the costs and benefits of distraction. Some productivity gurus warn against the hidden costs of interruption, mainly due to the time required to re-focus on the task at hand. A few months ago I learned to disable the pop-up e-mails from my e-mail client, and I'm thankful for that. On the other hand, just this morning I read an article in Wired about the creative value of allowing oneself to get periodically distracted with a few Tweets or Facebook updates. Perhaps the customer service interruptions for English's team are similarly rejuvenating.
Of course, I cherry-picked the excerpt above from a heavily packaged article so there is undoubtedly more to English's side of it. Besides, he has founded four companies and sold one of them to Intuit. So he clearly has some credibility on how teams work.
That's why these "The Way I Work" articles are so great. You read the article and think, "This person is nuts." And then you remember, "This person is wildly successful." And then you start to wonder, "What else am I taking for granted?"
- Stephane
PS - This is my second blog about Inc. content in as many weeks. I know. I sleep with Inc. under my pillow now.
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