My Grandmother knows more about customer service than I do.
My grandmother, now touching 90, lost most of her family during the partition of India in 1947. Her sight and hearing lasted till about a couple of years ago. Post which she relies on aids of different kinds to decipher most of her world. Her mind however is like an old bullet motorcycle. Takes a couple of kicks , but once on the road, goes all the way. I spent a considerable time in my career on the retail floor, selling shoes (Reebok) and later sound systems (Bose), and then managing ‘on the phone’ teams dealing with people who own credit cards (GE). After years of so called ‘world-class training’ in customer service from both ‘goreÉ’ and ‘desi’ trainers, I can stand and talk about creating great experiences for your customers for hours at length. Here’s where the dilemma starts. Part of every trainers struggle with people, are the ones who aren’t made for customer service. So you go to HR and try and explain the attitudes to look for and the communication skills. Some people still ...