James Cochran’s Blog

Something not well known about me is I love customer service. I don’t mean in the sense that I love receiving good customer service, although that is also true. I find the topic of customer service fascinating and I have ever since my days working fast food as a teenager. There have been many books and 3 or 5 day conferences on the matter but I believe it boils down to two simple truths.

1. Whatever your motivation for being gainfully employed you would not be able to accomplish that without your customer. For instance, if you work so you can take your significant other out to dinner and a movie then you shouldn’t be so upset when that customer or client calls you at 5:45 on a Friday night and demands a precious 45 minutes of your time when your trying to get out of there to pick up your significant other. Without that customer you wouldn’t be employed and you would not be able to take anyone out that night. So cherish that time with your customer because you wouldn’t be who you are without them.

2. This one is for all those people who don’t believe you have a customer and number 1 doesn’t apply to you. Simply put, EVERYONE has a customer. If you didn’t then there would be no reason for you to be working. You may think, “but I’m just a volunteer at this little film festival!” Depending on your role either the people coming to the festival or the people who brought the movies are your customer. If you, the attendees, or the movie makers weren’t in the equation you would have a terrible flop of a film festival. If you’re volunteering then you should understand customer service that much better because at least some of your motivation is to usher in a good experience for movie makers and viewers alike (and probably catch some awesome free flicks).

The reason that we have to have books and training sessions on customer service is because it’s so hard for some people to understand these 2 simple truths. If we could just realize that everyone has a customer and without that customer your entire well being would collapse the work of goods and services would be much better off.