I am often invited to speak at conferences and events around the UK – but last week, I spoke at a conference with a difference. It was a large event for the travel industry and took place in Turkey.
I have been to Istanbul a couple of times but not for some years, and I have never been anywhere else outside that brilliant, bustling city. So, this trip was quite different for me, and I found that it brought me lots of valuable thoughts and insights.
The importance of kindness
I would put these into three categories. Firstly, the welcome I received from my hosts and the friendliness in general of the Turkish people was really wonderful. It made me reflect on the diversity and difference to be found across human-kind – and the fact that the clue, as it were, is in the word: ‘kind’. The values of kindness and consideration are what brings so much of the pleasure in our interactions with others. They also sit right at the heart of the service agenda. Any organisation that wants to provide high standards of service to its customers is really striving to consider their customers’ needs and show that they care about the quality of the customer experience. Customers pick up on this – and when they encounter truly considerate service, they are vastly more likely to come back again and advocate for the brand to others.
The value of the unfamiliar
Secondly, the trip made me realise just how much you can refresh your perspectives when you place yourself into the unfamiliar. Everything felt that little bit different in Turkey – the climate, the smells, the food, the language, the signage, the whole environment. I found that this made me much more aware of everything around me, more deliberate in my thinking and more cognisant of my own actions. So much of the time we act almost on autopilot when we’re in the middle of our normal, everyday routines. But out in Turkey, I felt much more alert and observant. When I was speaking to people, I really listened to what they had to say. And I was fully appreciative of people’s kindness and warmth.
There is a strong analogy here to the customer experience. When a customer interacts with a new brand for the first time, whether that’s physically or online, they are effectively also going somewhere new. Everything around them is unfamiliar. Everything will feel that little bit different. Consciously or unconsciously, they are looking for signs and information to help them navigate this. They’re also hoping for a warm welcome and a bit of help in finding what they’re looking for.
The learning here for customer service professionals, therefore, is to think about what welcome your brand gives to customers. Are they welcomed? Is there easy signposting and navigation advice? Is support on hand if they have a problem or query? Quite simply, how are they made to feel when they engage with your brand?
An extension of this is to ask yourself whether your customer service teams ever experience the unfamiliar in order to create a more empathetic understanding of the customer perspective? Think about the training and learning & development programmes open to them. It doesn’t have to be a case of physically transporting them to a foreign country, but if you have an away-day event or even within your standard training materials, are there exercises that really put them in someone else’s shoes and make them feel what it is like to be in an unfamiliar situation? There is huge learning value in this, and it’s directly applicable to the service agenda.
Diversity makes us what we are
Thirdly, my trip to Turkey gave me a renewed appreciation of the importance of diversity and inclusion. As a world, we really live in a diverse place. But it’s also the case that this diversity isn’t about far-flung places and exotic travel – it’s all around us in our everyday life. The UK is a rich melting pot of cultures and backgrounds. Every organisation has a diverse customer base. Recognising this, understanding it, and striving to meet individuals’ preferences and needs across all customer segments – these are all critical elements of any customer strategy.
We need to embrace diversity, take inclusive approaches, and place full value on the human qualities of kindness and caring. We also need to look at issues from different and unfamiliar perspectives and reap the learnings from considering things afresh. Any organisation that genuinely does this will find themselves a long way down the path of building a culture of service excellence and a truly customer-centric approach.
Related Posts
