Get To Know Your Customers by Actually Speaking To Them!!

The June 2008 issue of Fortune Small Business published an interesting article entitled "How To Navigate Customer Service" by Jonathan Blum. Although it focused on the technology used by Kayak.com to route customer service calls and e-mails, I found the philosophy behind the routing more interesting. Kayak.com has no customer service department. Everyone in the company, including manager and senior leaders, answers the customer service telephones and responds to e-mail for about twenty minutes each day. The technology routes these incoming messages to the proper staff member. What a concept! Wouldn't it be impressive if every company, large or small, required their leaders to participate daily in customer service issues. Imagine the power of INFORMED leaders who have the frontline opportunity to understand what their customers like or dislike. What a powerful way to run a business!