Customer Service Training Starts at Home

Don't you sometimes wish you had the silver bullet for finding great volunteers or staff for your team? Whether it's guest service peeps on your volunteer church team or your sales staff at your retail store, a silver bullet for finding "stars" would be awesome.  

In his book, A Week at the Airport, Alain de Botton notes the following about British Airways:

The airline’s survival depended upon…the loving atmospherethat had reigned a quarter of a century earlier in a house inCheshire, where two parents had brought up a future staff memberwith benevolence and humour—all so that today, without anythanks being given to those parents . . . he would have both the willand the wherewithal to reassure an anxious student on her way to the gate to catch BA048 to Philadelphia.

 Micah Solomon observes that we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that only people with "perfect" upbringing make great team members. Plenty of healthy, engaging, people-loving folks come from a less than desirable family background. 

The fact is attitude matters. Companies like Nordstrom, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and more have built customer service icons by hiring people with exceptional, people-loving attitudes. Almost everything else can be trained. You either have the right attitude... or you don't.

Maybe you've noticed: bring a person on the team with a less than positive, people-focused attitude and you'll experience a near-impossible conversation trying to help them see themselves honestly in the mirror. You'll have to release them, and they'll likely never understand why.  

Granted, you won't know the family history on every team member. Nor should you let that history deter you away from a great hire or volunteer.  

However, if you're a parent - do a grand favor to people you may never meet and raise your kids to respect, value and defer to the worth of other people. Help shape a positive, self-giving attitude in your children. 

Attitude matters. Because people matter.