"Our mission is customer service." "We're here to provide excellent customer service." "Customer service is job 1." I have struggled for quite some time trying to get past "customer service is the mission." I've always found it very difficult to get leaders to understand that customer service is a means of accomplishing the real mission which, in the retail industry where this problem is most prevalent, is probably to produce or sell a product.

So, why do I make such a point of this? As long as employees think customer service is the mission, won't the real mission be accomplished? Maybe. But only if leaders have given them the tools to do the job.

Because the business world is presently entrenched in a too-many-suppliers-chasing-too-few-spending-customers death spiral, there has been a renaissance in Business Media about Customer Service. This proves, in one fell swoop that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. However, what is often overlooked (and what is certainly being overlooked at present) is that great customer service, like charity, begins at home.

The critical component in any Customer-centric strategy is your people, they are the point of delivery, where 'the rubber meets the road' as it were. So in order to make customers happy, we must first ensure our people are happy, demotivated employees make lousy brand ambassadors, highly motivated and enthused employees will provide a sustainable strategic edge (no mean feat in a world where differentials are eroded hourly). Consequently, leaders should make it their business to ensure that the troops are fed, watered and enthused.

I didn't like the title of this book. In fact, the title kept me from reading it for some time until someone enthusiastically recommended it to me. It seemed to me the title was a nod towards what I perceived to be a growing trend to be rebellious just for the sake of being different. As I read though, I quickly learned that isn't what this book is about. Read the entire review.

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