Being A Customer Service Leader

• Published in: The American Salesman Vol. 56; no. 3; p. 21
• Main Author: Price, Bette
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Burlington National Research Bureau 01-03-2011
• Subjects: Customer services; Employees; Leadership; Marketing; Mission statements; Success; United States > US
• ISSN: 0003-0902

In 1990, authors and management consultants Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke published one of the first books on customer service, bringing to people's attention how customer service impacts the long-term success of a business. Despite all that has been written about customer service, research by TARP and the American Customer Satisfaction Index indicate a continual decline in customer service. In that vein, two important considerations must be looked at: 1. Customer service must be thought of as a leadership issue. 2. Customer service is a marketing issue. The ability to determine what good customer service is for your organization begins with your mission statement. The development of an effective mission statement directly ties back to being a leadership issue. Organizations committed to being service oriented will use their mission statement as a living document referring to it often, building principles and standards from it and evaluating performance and changes based upon it.