True Customer Service

(originally posted on Instagram)

Your Customer, do you really care?

Sunday is often a day of reflection for me. Its a day I look back on the past week and what I've done well, and what I could do better the coming week.

Today, my thoughts are about serving others, particularly my customers.

I believe everyone I come in contact with is a customer.

When I go to my favorite breakfast place, the host and my server like a customer.

When I sit with my CPA or my financial planner, they are a customer.

And certainly in my years as a broadcaster, the audience and the paying client were customers.

So were my bosses, my direct reports, etc...

The more experience I gained, the more I realized that to really serve my customers, I needed to care about them. The best path to good service at the restaurant was through my server. The best way to get a preferred seat was a through host or hostess.

Running television stations; I wanted my viewing customers to be entertained and informed. I wanted advertising customers to make more money.

I wanted our vendors to learn something and be proud of doing work with us. 

Serving your customer is about managing those relationships and investing in people.

Have you taken time to identify the most important relationships in your life?

Start with friends and family, if you can't get that right then you got bigger challenges.

Then assess those 5-10 relationships that impact your daily life. Your co-workers, your bosses, your direct reports and finally, you're paying customers.

Do you know these people? Do you know why they have to disconnect at 5p on Thursdays?

Are you building those strong personal relationships?

Are you giving back to the community?

Life is about managing relationships and at its best its give and take. Honestly, at its best you'll feel you are giving more than your are taking.

Let me assure you I've never been perfect, I am a work in progress.

Here's another tip. Care enough about people to recognized that sometimes you are not the right fit. This is not the right place to work. In fact, sometimes you suggest a better fit and you create a better long term relationshp that pays dividends in the future.

Hall of fame Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman is one such example. Aikman's college coach realized he was not a fit for Oaklahoma's offense and helped Aikman land a slot at UCLA. Aikman would go on to become a college All American. He would then be a top draft pick in the NFL where he gained hall of fame status. Later in his career Aikman would play for Barry Switzer, the coach who realized that no matter how talented Troy Aikman was, he did not fit the Oaklahoma offense.