This is Part 2 of Internal and External Customer Service. In  Part 1, I challenged you to think about how you can up your game with your internal and external customer service.

Even though one of our core values is extreme service (not just excellent service, but extreme service), I don’t want to become complacent and say, “We already do such a good job that we don’t really need to do anything to improve. Let’s just keep doing what we do. If we keep doing what we do, and our customers and clients are satisfied, where’s the harm in that?”

Well, the harm is the word…complacency. When you start becoming complacent, then the things you do just become rote. You don’t really think about what you’re doing or why; it just becomes a thing you do. You could look at that as a positive so that the task becomes natural, or you could look at it as doing that task loses its meaning. Well, we have to do X, Y, and Z because that’s what we’ve always done, but you’re not  looking at why do you do that.

Again, like before, let’s start with external service.

• What’s the point?
• What’s the deeper meaning?
• What’s the Deeper Why?

This is why you can’t just rest on “We’ve been doing a great job, and our people love us.”

Because you can run the danger of your actions becoming meaningless, losing some of the impact and the meaning you attributed to those actions.

So how can you not be complacent? Here’s a survey we sent out to some of our customers and clients with a few short, simple questions.

• What’s the best thing about working with us?
• What do you like best about working with us?
• What could we do better and what would you like to see?

One reason people probably don’t do more surveys is because they’re afraid of the answers they might get.

What if they tell me that they’re not happy with me?

What if we reach out to them and ask them how we’re doing,  and it reminds them that they’re actually not completely satisfied and then they decide to leave? What if they ask for something that we can’t or don’t want to provide?

Those are all fear–based questions. Look at the potential answers you can get as amazing information, basically your own focus group. You’re asking for input, and they’re giving you the input you want; knowledge is power. What can you do with that information?

For our bigger clients and customers, we reached out to them personally and asked them those questions.  The result could be a bigger, deeper conversation that might not happen just by sending a survey by email or an online tool.

Now for how you serve your people internally.

• What motivates you?
• What do you want?
• What are your goals personally and professionally?

Those actually are very good things to know about your staff because not everybody is built the same. When you start understanding what’s important to people and how each person is uniquely motivated, then you’re going to do a much better job as a manager and a leader.

Like the customer survey, create a survey for your internal people to take, and then have that 1 on 1 conversation with your top level people.

Knowledge is power, and when we have more knowledge, we  have the ability to make better choices…to take more informed actions and to really help our people thrive, which then in turn is going to help the organization thrive.

What one action can you take on both sides, internal service and external service, to really serve your people better?

When your people, employees, staff, team members, and vendors are motivated, feel appreciated and acknowledged, and your customers feel appreciated and acknowledged, you’re going to get more productivity; you’re going to get more revenue. It all comes down to a positive bottom line for your organization.