The only reason your company exists is to solve problems for customers. If you do not do this well the customers go away and your company ceases to exist. I have often marveled at how huge corporations place minimum wage employees in their customer service department and then wonder why their sales have gone down. Customer service in not a department of your company. It is what your company does to keep and earn trust in the marketplace.

Last week, I visited my local supermarket to pick up some groceries, and they made a ridiculous customer service mistake. I am a very courteous customer. However, when someone wastes my time I am very quick to take my business elsewhere.

I recognize that supermarkets have microscopically small profit margins. However, the principle is the same in all customer service activities. Customers want what they want when they want it. Service me, the customer, or you will lose my business.

I was in line at checkout, and there was only one cashier. The person in front of me was taking a huge amount of time with their purchase, because they were convinced that they were overcharged. There were at least ten of lined up at this one cashier.

The manager of the store saw what was occurring and came over to supervise the situation. Instead of hopping on another cash register and handling the backlog of customers, he did nothing.

I very nicely asked the manager, "while this situation in from me of me gets worked out, could you ring me up?"

"I don't have anyone else in the store to put there," the manager replied..

I couldn't help but think: Why don't YOU do it?

Apparently that thought of servicing the ten paying customers in line never occurred to him.

After twenty or so minutes , the problems were resolved, and I got out of there. I promised myself that I would not be returning to that store unless absolutely necessary. I don't mean to sound like a cranky customer but wasting twenty minutes of my time is not the only issue there. There were 9 other people in that line who also had time wasted for them. All because a Manager couldn't get out of the way of his own ego.

The point of this story is that the manager had a really crazy idea about what his job function was. He probably thought that since he was a manager he didn't make change for customers and check out their groceries. This manager thought that since he was the boss somehow he was exempt from mundane labor.

The reality is that CUSTOMERS are the boss. Your business exists to please and serve them. Customer Service is not a department of your organization. It is what your business and every person involved with your business strives to accomplish.

If your Managers do not understand this fundamental principle they should be retrained or fired.

There is nothing more important than servicing your customers.