1. People Are Your Business
We live inaviral mediaage.Thisfact was made acutelyapparenttomanagers,stockholdersandstaffers
at Comcast inJulyof thisyear. If youhave not heardabout the incident,please readon.
A customer(whojusthappenedtobe V.P.of Productat AOL) calledthe Comcastcall centerrequesting
disconnection. Whatensuedwasacall centerharangue about how that wasa mistake.The customer
repeatedlystatedthat he didn’tfeel he hadtogive a reasonfor stoppingservice.The call center
employee,whomostassuredlyhadbeentrainedtoretainorupsell service,wouldnotgive up.For
eighteenminutes,the Comcastrepresentative cajoled,antagonizedandotherwise harassedthe
customer.The lasteightminutes of the interactionwere recordedandpostedon Twittertoincredulous
reactionsfromfollowers.
To most businessleaders,understandingthe value of developingtheirpeople isinherentin their
everydaydecision-making.Despitethispervasive consensus, we’ve all experiencedcustomerservice
that we wishwe couldforget.To reach beyond the prosaic,Iwant to illustrate acounter examplethat
describesadifferentparadigm inbusinessthinking.
Online shoesandothergoodsretailer,Zappos, hasamission.Mostorganizationsdo.But,theirsis notto
sell shoesorclothing.It’stoserve theircustomers.Thatmeans Zapposcall centeremployeeshelpwith
anything.If someone were tocall inabout findingadrycleanerindowntownSanFrancisco,youcan bet
a Zapposcall centerrepwill hopona searchengine tofindthatinformation. One couldcall thisthe Boy
Scout methodof customerservice.ThoughZapposemployeeswilltake astandwithunhappy
customers, itprobably won’tinvolve alienatingthemthrough poorincentivesandcommunication
stiflingscripts provided forthe call centerstaff toreadto the disgruntled.
Customerservice isthe newmarketing inthe age of viral media.Everycustomerinteractionwith the
staff isan interactionwith the brand.Witnessthatthe AOLV.P. describedhere has90,000 Twitter
followers;he tweetedoutthe recordingof hisComcastexperience minusthe call center
representative’sname. Lestwe blame the representative,itwouldbe agoodbetthat hiscompany
trainingcreatedthe psychologythatfueledhisbehavior.
To improve internal psychology, the workforce needsconstantmaintenanceand“thought”upgrades in
the form of learning.Tobe sure,the wrong kindof conceptsandtoolscan alsobe learnedtothe
detrimentof morale and,ultimately,the bottomline. Inordertoget to a people-service place internally,
businessleadersshould seekouthighquality,interoperableskills trainingforthose whomove the
company.The adage ringstrue:You don’tbuildabusiness.Youbuildpeople, thentheybuildthe
business.
What couldComcast do?One, don’tapologize fora“rogue” employee.He wasbehavedexactlyashe
was trained.Two,figure out how tomake customerslove the brandby shiftingthe thinkingtoone of
deepservice andempathy.Three,retainhighlytalentedcustomerservice staff bymakingsure theyhave
a stake in the creative processof customerinteraction.
To make these happen,Comcastshould firstseekoutthe bestincommunication,leadershipand
customerservice training.Thankfullyforthem,there isawide varietyof concepts andideas available.
2. One of myfavorites(andforwhichthere are manyvariationsontheme) wascodifiedbythe late
StephenCovey.Twenty-five yearsago,hisSevenHabitsbecamepartof the professional lexicon.Among
those sevenare the largerframeworksof Dependence,Independence andInterdependence. Ina
nutshell,Dependenceisaboutsurvivingbyconformingtonorms.Independence isabout achieving
personal goalsbyapplyingrational thinkingandself-learning.Interdependenceisaboutarrivingatthe
wisdomof the interconnectednessof everything.
The V.P.at AOL understoodInterdependence.He workedwithComcasttoensure itsrepresentativewas
not fired.Nowlet’shope Comcastbeginstorecastitscompanyculture towarda differentparadigmthat
buildsitspeople withgenuine service andempathy. Thisisthe essence of interdependenceasexpressed
negativelyorpositivelyinviral mediamessages.
I can imagine aday whena positive customerinteractiongoesviral.Canyou?
