With this small document I intend to put to your consideration, dear reader, mainly if you are a person who serves clients (both external and internal) of any institution, some principles that regulate this relationship; in such a way that they can make it more productive, enjoyable and rewarding.
In these lines you will find only a transcription of the experience of many who have managed to be successful in the relationship with their clients and it is presented as an opportunity for you.
Many wonder: Can we be professionals in customer service? Perhaps it is a widely publicized belief that a person can, without having any preparation, be an expert in serving customers. It is also believed that it is a very easy activity, that only knowing how to speak is enough to achieve it. This version is very far from the reality we live in.
Some also come to believe that having the best product, available and delivering it when the customer requests it, has already met the customer's expectations and meeting these requirements is enough.
A pharmacy, a sports club, a hardware store, a warehouse, a small grocery store do not escape this temptation and, considering it already enough, they cause customers or users to suffer poor attention and have the need to endure until the unspeakable in order to obtain the product or service that they offer you.
This situation becomes even more critical when the customer has to deal with a monopoly, then things get more hostile and the customer becomes the target of bad treatment and arrogance.
Fortunately for many of us, the number of institutions, companies and people who serve the public is increasing and who are realizing how important it is to have a client, and above all to keep them satisfied, since that client is important also for their survival. And they are also becoming aware that the reason for their existence is in the people who come looking for their services.
This new awareness is discovering a new curtain in the work of service, since knowing how to serve a client is not an easy task and it requires principles and techniques, attitudes and a very good disposition and knowledge on the part of the employees. of the products or services offered, of the practices of the Institution to which it belongs and of the habits and ways of being of the clients.
What is a Client?
Public, user, beneficiary, are names with which people are designated according to the service to which they are resorting, they are still under the same term vacationer, tourist, viewer, radio listener, patient, student, passenger, etc. The word customer is generally described as the person with whom a business relationship is established, to sell a product. According to the philosopher Francisco García Olvera, the Romans called a customer a person who turned to another to seek help, support, a product or the satisfaction of some need. With this small description of "client", it is also correct to consider children and students as such and especially the person who approaches us requesting our service.
The labor dilemma
All people who work to help others, whether they provide a product or service, can focus the work they do on two important premises, "that of serving their customers or serving their customers."
We are going to define what each of these premises means:
What is serving your customers?
It is to obtain the maximum in a personal way, providing the client with the minimum. It is to use it as a means to obtain one's ends. It is to take advantage of the relationship with the client, to obtain exclusively the own benefit.
An example may be that of a person who makes the customer understand, deceiving him, that the product he is requesting is in short supply and that therefore it will cost more than what was already stipulated.
A personal example that happened to me was when I went down on the road to buy a basket of regional sweets. I bought it because I saw it very attractive, attractive to my eyes and palate; wrapped in a cellophane paper. When I got to the house I could see that the only sweets that were good were the ones at the top, the ones at the bottom were spoiling and that there was only newspaper below taking up space. In this experience I was deceived, the one who sold me the basket with sweets was not interested in my satisfaction; and I still left him a certain amount of change since I didn't have it, and I thought: "it doesn't matter, it's worth leaving that money, since the product I'm wearing has a very nice presentation."
This is a clear example of the work seen by a person who offers a service or product only to satisfy his personal benefit.
Unfortunately we live in a culture where these types of cases are constantly presented, in which people are used, where work is used to achieve personal benefits regardless of satisfying the needs of other people, with which in many of the cases cases, a commitment was made to attend to them.
What is serving your customers?
It is working so that the client satisfies his needs, in accordance with the contract that was established with him. This is based on having the conviction that you have the right to your own well-being as long as the well-being of the people to whom a service has been provided has been achieved first.
It is to take advantage of the relationships that are established with the people who request our help, to be able to solve their problems or meet their expectations and thus be able to achieve mutual dignity, both of the person who provides the service and of the person who receives that service.
Fortunately, this type of orientation is being disseminated with more echo and force in all sectors of society and the great benefit it brings to everyone, at both levels, is becoming evident: “both for those who serve and for those who that is served ”.
The way these events are being carried out is requiring the people who offer their services or products to decide to improve on a day-to-day basis. Now it's up to you dear reader to take this option if you haven't already; And if you have already done so, I invite you to renew your purpose, this will bring many benefits to you and your clients.
