Serving is about solving - Anything else is NOT Service

High on Knowledge – Low on Delivery

In India we are high on Knowledge but low on Action. We make truly great academicians, professors, consultants but poor implementers & managers. Apart from low / deteriorated work ethos, what is essentially responsible for this ‘ Doing’ gap is overemphasis of our education system on ‘ Knowledge ‘ at the cost of Learning / Insights or Realizations, without which there can be no meaningful action.

Same is the scenario in Indian Service Industry. Most if not all are well familiar with Phrases like: Customer centricity / focus, Customer is King, Customer oriented service .. etc, however while most can rattle these out effortlessly with high memory, to score 10/ 10 in an exam paper; I doubt how many really understand what ‘ Serving ‘ means and what it takes to be ‘ Customer Centric‘.

I am convinced that the reason why most service deliveries in India are substandard is not lack of talent or sincerity --- which are quite in abundance – but a lack of right service orientation . They just don’t know what SERVICE is .

What is not in active cognizance cannot be in active consciousness & hence cannot reflect in behaviour.

Customer of self focus

Let’s take an example: We are always told that Automatic answering (IVR) systems are created for customer convenience & access. Is that our experience, really ? Many times, many of these systems are so complexly designed as to have customer never reach any point of resolution. Either you don’t understand the instructions or is a multi iteration - long convoluted process before you reach some point of connect --- i.e. if you are not exhausted by then.

Many times what you called to ask, is not covered in the set of options – to make the matter worse, some systems do not give you an option of talking to operator & it is not uncommon to have your call disconnected before you finish all the ‘ iterations ‘. Many times you find that the numbers are engaged / not accessible or there is a long wait you need to endure before you can be either connected to some human being or allowed to progress . Funnily enough as if to add insult to injury, during this wait you are treated to a recorded (but aimless) message of the kind… “ Your call is important to us…. All our lines are busy , please wait…. “. This happens because the service providers – while they parrot award winning lines like ‘customer centricity‘ always are SELF centered… their every move, every design is woven around self convenience or cost / profit optimisation .

Service Perspective

This happens because nobody understands, nor has anyone taken efforts to create these understanding of fundamentals of service . I share below a couple of eye opening perspectives on Service

1.       Serving is a Cause , not a Job

Most individuals engaged in service delivery are there because it is one of the job options – for their organisations choice of industry is a business decision --- nothing wrong or illegitimate about it; except that, it is NOT service driven . You can see this vividly in a hospital… How many of the serving staff… or Nurses you come across as serving a cause v/s holding on to a job. All are comparable in Background , Training & Salary -  but most work ritualistically . And yet you do see a few of them very different and dedicated in serving patients . For them it is a Cause !

2.       Serving is about Solving , not answering

Solving is the foundation stone of understanding & delivering service…. & what do we see happening  in Service Industry in India … They Answer , They Explain , They Argue , They deny ,They Force … Everything except addressing solving customer issues .

To give you most glaring but well familiar example which epitomizes most blatant violation of this principle of service is the announcement for a delayed flight at the airport . It goes something like “ We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused due to this delay , which has been caused by the late arrival of the incoming aircraft “ ….. does this announcement – which mostly happens well past a long unanswered wait by passengers – add any value ?

-         Does this add to your knowledge, does this give you new information… no since for you it’s a stale news , just a post facto acknowledgement of the delay

-         Does this take away your loss of time, energy, missed appointment or patience… not a bit, because it is not intended that way by the service provider

-         Does this make up for or compensate in any way by creating some other advantage for you… in terms of pay back, hotel stay, drop to your home / office, escort for ladies if it is a late night arrival, food while you wait …. Anything at all ? No, never.

What does it do then: ( post facto ) Inform, Explain, Self-defend (blame everything from weather, ATC, all except self ). How does it help customer to know that the delay is caused by late incoming aircraft ? In any case , whose aircraft is it , that arrived late ?

This is NOT Service !

If in any customer interaction there is nothing that is solved or addressed, it is Just Not Service !