Law of the Echo Applies in Customer Service
THE STAR Monday
By Yvonne Chong

The law of echo - what goes around, comes around - applies to customer service, according to quality service guru and author Ron Kaufman. "If you want a stronger relationship with the customer, you have to be willing to give more first," Kaufman told Star Business during an interview. "The challenge is for a company to train its staff to understand that there is a whole lot more to a customer than just the present transaction," he said.

But how does a company actually build strong service?

Kaufman identified three critical ingredients:

• Having people with the right mindset;
• Providing them with the tools needed to do their job well; and
• Building a service culture that holds everything together.

Kaufman said Malaysia, with its warm family-oriented culture, was well positioned in terms of developing people with the right mindset. But, he added, it lacks a culture of customer service.

"In Malaysia, you've got the economic abundance, the physical safety, the cultural harmony and respect. What are people waiting for in order to be more generous and kind in their customer service?" he asked.

Kaufman said the Asian mentality in customer service was in the culture of the country. For example, he said, Thailand has a gentle Sawasdee-ka, Japan has a very respectful and formal Hai! and Australia has its casual and friendly Good day, mate. No worries. Malaysia, he noted, had yet to develop such a culture.

Kaufman, the author of UP Your Service!, said his newly-released book encouraged people to build a culture of customer service. He said the book was tailored to take anyone seeking an improvement in service quality progress step by step.

The 320-page book is loaded with images, photographs, icons and graphics in just about every page. It is case-study rich, with 211 company citations, mostly out of Kaufman's experience. According to Kaufman, the book took 10 years of planning and 2 years of actual writing.

At the end of each chapter, Kaufman has included a list of thought-provoking questions, the answer to which can be found in the chapter itself, or at his website or newsletter, both accessible for free.

The Kaufman website www.UpYourService.com contains hundreds of pages of video, audio, photographs, articles, newsletter, products, course outlines and various promotional materials.

The monthly newsletter, called UP Your Service!, gives practical examples of what other organisations around the world are doing to improve service, increase customer loyalty, build strong partnerships and create an effective service culture. The newsletter started in May 1997 with 237 subscribers, which Kaufman said was all his family and friends. Subscription had since grown to more than 20,000 with 1,000 added every month. "And I never advertised it," he said.

UP Your Service! is priced to reach the masses. "I'm a populist, not an elitist. Though I work with very senior executives all the time, I also like to work with the masses. Most of my training events are quite big," he said.

The book has been selling very well in Singapore and Malaysia and the second edition is currently in print. Amazon.com, which also carries the book, has also been reordering copies by the hundreds. "Many companies are also buying it in volume so that everyone gets a copy," Kaufman said.

He said that more books were in the pipeline, and one of it would be The Ron Kaufman signature stories, a collection of stories Kaufman tells on stage during a presentation to illustrate his points.

Kaufman is an internationally acclaimed innovator and motivator for partnerships and quality service. He delivers high-energy keynote speeches, interactive workshops, team-building programmes and culture-building special events globally. He has been residing in Singapore for more than a decade.

Copyright, Ron Kaufman. All rights reserved.
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