So many business people are looking for the magic bullet when it comes to customer service.  Well, there isn’t one as far as I’ve seen, but I have found something that I do believe helps in a significant way.

I believe the real trick for making service remarkable is getting people into a mindset where helping others is something they want to do instead of have to do, and this mentality change is critical to changing behavior. This is one reason why so much service performance falls short.  Businesses train their people to perform tasks that become scripted and fake not realizing that real success only comes when people’s thinking changes. This is the only way to get service to go beyond mere tasks (have to do) to something genuine (want to do).  But how do you do it?  How do you change people’s thinking?  How can you move people from a self-focused mentality to an others-first, service-focused mentality?

One way to start is by training people to listen.   You see, when you listen, truly listen, you have to be in others-first mode, it can’t be about you, it has to be about the other person. Simply put, listening well mandates others-focus.  Thus, if you can train your people to really listen to understand, you will be bringing out the natural, others-focused service mentality that is in them already.  Using this innate service-focused mentality as a foundation can serve as the stepping stone to a consistent desire to help others which translates to better service performance and happier customers.

Listening, it’s not a magic bullet, but it is a start in moving your service to the next level.