What is Evolutionary Customer Service?

As I read more and more about the state of Customer Service, Customer Experience, etc., I have felt like there is an annoying itch in the back of my mind.  A feeling that, while I agree with many of the premises put out by very experienced CS professionals, there is something missing.  Sometimes it is a feeling that while two points may be very insightful, there is a link between them that seems to elude the author.  Other times it feels that the ideas are good, but limited in scope and only speak to a small percentage of situations.

I figured the only way to scratch that itch is to keep reading, listening and thinking on all of the different viewpoints and ideas.  And then today it hit me...one big problem that I see ties in exactly with the concept of this blog.  Many of these ideas, solutions, policies are great ideas, but not necessarily evolutionary.

As a quick aside, one definition of Evolutionary is "relating to the gradual development of something."  So the concept of Evolutionary Customer Service would be the gradual development of the Customer Service profession.  Unfortunately I am not good a gradual, at least once I feel that I know the path forward.  However even using the term gradual loosely, I don't believe the evolution of CS should take 100+ years.

And that is what I am starting to realize.

 A majority of these ideas are not necessarily new; they are concepts that are either exact replicas of previous ideas or they are nuanced versions of previously attempted solutions.  And yes to evolve is to make mistakes and learn from them, but to evolve in business (and be successful) is to develop at a faster and more efficient clip than your competition.  So if you want to be the best CS or CX organization, wouldn't you want to learn from other people's mistakes?  Wouldn't you want to take into account those ideas that have either already showed success in different incarnations or have failed miserably?

Like a society, we need to learn from our past in order to make better decisions for our future.  Which brings me to my main point.  We seem to be moving away from a more holistic strategy of Customer Service and regressing to a more siloed approach to overall Account Management.  I have heard many people discuss this concept recently, but it seems to be discussed as if it is a new phenomenon.  And it isn't!

Chad Hymas

I just attended a discussion in my town regarding school and community safety from a renowned speaker, Chad Hymas (HIGHLY recommended).  And one of the main points that he discussed was related to his own horrific accident which left him a quadriplegic.  When a 3,000 lb bail of hay fell on him and severed 95% of his spinal column, the question was...how would they be able to get it off of him in time to save his life.  The answer, shouted out by a girl in the audience no more than 12 years old, was teamwork.  It took 8 people, not 7 or 6, but 8 to lift that bail off him in time to save his life.  If just one person had not helped, the work would have been even harder and may not have been in time.

This is the same situation in many aspects of life, and one I tie in here.  In order to successfully manage your customers, you need to work as a team.  And not just as a CS team, but as an enterprise wide team.  In many ways we have devolved as a society, in that we are less communal than our ancestors.  They did not survive with the technologies we have today.  They survived by working as a team.  By understanding each persons strengths and weaknesses and taking advantage of the strengths and helping to fix the weakness, or turn them into strengths.

As CS professionals we are sometimes looked at as an expense, a necessary evil.  Something to clear out the debris so Sales and Marketing can grow revenue.  But like the old comparison of the hunter and farmer, the CS group can build a foundation to sustain the company when the lean times come.  In this way, it is in the best interest of ALL involved to work and provide for that foundation.  It is this foundation that will sustain you as you evolve as an organization.