Why effective leadership is so important

- Customer service leadership's important for several key reasons. One's probably obvious. The other two, maybe not so much. Let's take a look at them here. One reason effective leadership is so essential, and probably no surprise, is that customer expectations are evolving rapidly. When customers experience a service innovation with one organization, they begin to expect the same of others. So you've got to continually revisit what does good service mean? That takes leadership, and the stakes are high. It's easy for customers to tell others about a bad experience through reviews and social channels, but if you consistently deliver great service, the connected world's actually a very powerful friend.

Companies that stand out in competitive markets, Trader Joe's in groceries, USAA in financial services, Zappos in online shoes and clothing, and others, say that up to 70% of new customers come through referrals. A second, and perhaps less visible reasons, that leadership is so important is the potential for customer service to provide value to others in the organization. It's customer service that sees the early warning signs of product or service glitches. It's service that knows how well we keep our promises to customers.

It's those in customer service who know best when communication's unclear, or where systems don't quite work as intended. And it's customer service that sees so clearly where there are research and development opportunities and ways we can innovate. When captured and shared, this insight can help virtually every other part of the organization, but it takes leadership to not let these opportunities slip through our fingers. A third reason leadership is so important is that finding the best approach to customer service is a discovery process. There's no one template, no cookie cutter approach that works.

Leadership is required to shape services that are right for you, your situation. Many organizations don't get nearly the returns they could from their investments in customer service. I found there are some debilitating perspectives that too often exist. They include, well, service is just a necessary cost to be minimized, or service is important, but it's not a differentiator for us. Being okay is good enough. Or hey, let's just benchmark others to find the formula. Or great service is expensive, right? Just look at how expensive not so great service is.

Do any of these views exist in your organization? Leadership's required to build consensus around a positive direction. Delivering effective customer service has never been more important, and with the right approach, applying the principles we'll cover in this course, you have the opportunity to make a difference with your customers, your employees, and all who benefit when the organization succeeds.