Customer Service Follow up

Amy touched on what I had in mind in her comment to the first post. Basically I think that customer service is rooted in the wrong pursuits. People need to be treated well because they are cared about, not because they can potentially spend more money. Lets use an example: Lets say I am going to Verizon because I want a new cell phone (this was my situation about a week ago). If the customer service there were based on the employees wanting me to have the phone and service plan that is going to work best for my needs, at a price I'm comfortable with my experience would go something like this: I walk in and am greeted by a sales rep whom I tell I need a new phone and I need to sign a new contract to continue my service. At this point the rep could ask if I want anything particular in a phone, does it need certain capabilities, in what ways do I use a phone, and do I have a price range in mind. Based on what I tell him/her I would then be shown a few options with the features I had asked for and within my price range, he/she would then tell me to take a few minutes to play around with each phone and see if they seem right for me. When I was ready I could then make my selection and buy it, or I could ask to be shown some more options. Once I had made a decision the rep could then ask me if I would like to make any changes to my plan before I sign a new contract or am I happy with how it is. Being content with it I could sign for another 2 years, get the new phone activated, pay, and leave happy with the experience.
Customer service at Verizon however, is rooted in the fact that if you are too rude the customer won't buy anything so you have to be nice in order to make money off the people that walk in the store. When I went in I told the rep my needs and he looked up how much of a credit I had toward a phone, then proceeded to walk me over to the most popular and most expensive phones that would be a good upgrade from what I was using. He pointed out the features such as being able to download and play music from my phone, the easy text message capabilities, Internet exploring and what not. At this point I told him I don't need to listen to music on my phone and that I don't text message or intend to use the phone for the Internet. This is where he looked at me like I was an idiot, as if to say "who in their right mind wouldn't use all these cool capabilities, everyone should be texting and playing music on their phones, this guy must be like 30 years older than he looks or something." Then he walked me over to basically the "old" phones and said I might be looking for one of these, rather than show me any features or try to sell me on these phones he said tell me if you have questions and walked away. So I started looking at all the phones he didn't show me to compare capabilities and prices and he asked my 3 times if I had any questions. I finally picked one and then he tried to sell me on adding text messaging to my phone plan after I had just told him I don't use texting. Finally I got my plan signed and got out of the store, and my feelings were ones of "did I get the right phone" "did he screw up my plan at all" "am I going to see a big bill or something", rather than feeling good about the transaction.
All of this to say, I don't think businesses can expect to provide good customer service unless it is based on them caring about the people they are servicing. Profits will likely come as a result of that service, but those profits cannot be the motivator or truly good customer service will not be what is delivered.
I would encourage you to think about the service you receive and take mental notes on why you think it is the way it is. I believe the overall level of service in our country can improve, I just don't think its going to.

Jesus and Customer Service

I think Jesus is a big fan of customer service. I frequently take note of horrible customer service at places where I choose to spend my money, it is sort a habit of mine, and I think that Jesus would be equally dissappointed with today's general level of customer service. I think the problem is rooted in the primary motivator for being in business. The places I most frequently spend my money are, grocery stores, restaurants, golf courses, video rental stores, and a bunch of other places I guess but those are all I can think of right now. Anyway, these businesses pretty much all exist to make money. Therefore, their only reason to even consider offering good service is that it might make them more money. I would say that it has been determined that money is not the best motivator, though it often seems like it, I really think there are about 5 or 6 other things that motivate people more than money but thats a different topic. My point here is that because people think the only thing they stand to gain from good customer service is money they aren't that motivated to give it their best shot. I intend to follow this post up with more of my thoughts on customer service but based on what I've said so far I'd be interested to see if you have any thoughts or responses. Ultimately in order for great customer service, or even good customer service to exist in an establishment there needs to be a better motivator than the money that it can generate. I'll get more into the Jesus aspect of this train of thought in my next post.

One more thing on politics

It is interesting to me that anyone can just pick to be a candidate for a political office. Then we are given the list of people who want to hold that position and we have to pick one. In most other areas of life people are put in leadership positions because the people around them want to follow them, not because they were the best of the 3 options available. For example in large companies people don't campaign to be CEO or CFO, the board of directors finds the person they think will be best at the job and offers it to them. Similarly on sports teams a team captain is generally chosen by the team and the person chosen will either be one of the best players, or a guy with other qualities that the team values in some one who is supposed to lead them. Yet for some reason our political system is more like a talent show, anyone can sign up and whoever gets the biggest applause wins and gets to have a hand in ruling the most powerful country in the world. I'm not sure where we got off track, but my understanding of the first presidency is George Washington was asked to serve as president because everyone felt he would be the best man for the job, not because he did the most commercials. Let me know what you think, is our system effective for putting the best person in office, or are the greatest presidents and other political officials never being elected because no one ever asked them to serve?

Back to Politics

When Amy and I were up visiting my parents for Easter we saw a little press conference for republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Amy kind of liked the guy because he seemed nice and friendly. Don't worry, I warned her that it is all an act and that the entire press conference was probably scripted out. Anyway, when Amy's parents picked us up from the airport we were talking about the candidate and they told us that he was a Mormon. It made me start to think if I would factor a person's religious beliefs into whether or not I wanted them as president. The whole separation of church and state would tend to imply that it shouldn't matter. However, I feel that one's religious beliefs are, or at least should be a part of everything they do and all the decisions they make. I would probably prefer that my president be of the same religious background as me but that is not always going to happen, so now I am trying to decide if I would rather have some one who flat out is not religious, or some one who is of another religion like a Muslim or a Jewish person. Its hard to say, I'd be interested to hear all your thoughts on this so feel free to post at will. I'm leaning towards any religious person would be better than no religion at all simply because most religions push for similar value systems that I agree with, but what if it was some crazy religion and all of a sudden our coins said "In the sun god we trust"? Let me know your thoughts.