Some Very Good Reasons to Love Your Customers

I wrote a poem that played off of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 23rd sonnet, How Do I love Thee, about the importance of customer service. The entire poem came to me on vacation, as I awakened from a dream and realized that the poetry of service makes the sense of service a beautiful thing. I began by writing:

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.
I love thee during working hours, in the hopes of simpler days.

I finished the poem, which became the organizing framework for an entire book, each section and chapter drawing on a stanza from the poetry. Writing the book was just as easy, an act of love flowing from a place of love. The poetry was the key! Maybe it came so easily because I was relaxing in a top floor condo above a quiet beach, with my darling beside me, and only the sound and smell of the breeze and the waves washing over my subconscious awareness. But when I awoke I had the entire poem in mind, and somehow it all made perfect sense to me. I leapt up, sat down, and kept writing until I'd written it all down. The rest of that day, and the next and the next, I was walking on air as I walked on the beach, fulfilled in having expressed some ineffable truth in such a wondrous way.

Yet several days later, after a particularly bad experience of service after returning home, I realized that the initial leap that I had taken, that customer service is based in and delivered in love, might need a little explaining to those unaccustomed to service excellence.

In fact, you may be wondering what love has to do with service. I can't say that I'd blame you. Great service is the exception to the rule. Service is usually so minimal that most of us opt to use machines rather than deal with people. It's just easier to order online, to submit a ticket, to talk to a robot, to use a machine, than to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageously bad service. And the place of love in all this obviously isn't apparent to the people providing such meager service. Many service providers view customer service as a barely necessary part of their work, something that requires you to show up, follow the rules, and get it over with.

So, what's love got to do with it? To me, the answer is obvious. The essence of great service IS love. For example, when you deal with people who love their jobs, you can feel it. When companies love their customers, you notice the difference. And when love is in the air, (love of work, love of coworkers, love of the chance to make a difference, love of the opportunity to touch someone's life, love of the moment and what wonders it brings, etc.) you find less problems there. It's fair to say, when love's in play, we know the people care.

I'm talking about Real Love. I'm talking about a relationship based in, built on, nurtured by, and developed through service. What does that have to with work? It's simple. Without the principles of love to guide you, your relationships grow complicated, people turn sour, and communication becomes progressively more difficult and non productive. Painful even. Yet serve with love, and you find fulfillment. I believe it was Albert Schweitzer who said "I do not know what your future holds. But one thing I know: The only ones among you who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

The principles of love in service include making your customer feel welcome, by giving a greeting and getting a name, honoring your customer, understanding their perceptions and doing the little things that count big, healing your customer when problems occur, by focusing on emotions before focusing on solutions, keeping your promises, doing what can be done instead of talking about what can't be done, educating your customer on how to receive the greatest benefit from your organization's products and services, solving your customers problems with good record keeping and reports, and digging deeper to get what's behind the surface, and advocating for your customer's needs and interests.

And yes, sometimes, you have to use the principles of Tough Love, because when customers behave badly, a more strategic response is needed. But done with love, in the spirit of love, bad behavior isn't so tough to deal with after all. As long as you know where you're coming from, you have the better reference point than merely reacting to someone who clearly needs a little love.

Perhaps the binding principle of love is that you win when your customers win, that you find fulfillment when your customers find fulfillment. Otherwise, what do you have after an interaction? You'll never get back the moments lost to dealing, coping and waiting for it to be over. I think that's why life's true meaning can only be found in the powerful side effects of loving service to others.

The meaning of your service presents itself to you, in those often unexpected and surprising moments of clarity when you experience the reality that someone's life has been made better as a result of the service you rendered.

So, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee in my waking hours, and enjoy these happy days.

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