Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

Service is taking action. The purpose of the action is to create value for someone else. Now think about this. Service is taking action. It could be over the phone. It could be over the counter. It could be online. It could be at your office. It could be at the customer’s place of business. It could be in someone’s house.

Service is taking action. It could be at the beginning where you’re answering questions. It could be in closing a sale so that somebody gets what they want. It could be scheduling delivery. It could be doing installation. It could be providing an upgrade. It could be doing training. It’s action. But the purpose of the action is not just doing something. It’s service when it creates value for someone.

Now if you take action to create value for yourself, that’s called self-service. But in the government agencies that are in the room or in the private and corporate entities that are in the room, or for the cooperatives that are in the room, the purpose of your service is to take action to create value for someone else.

Now this definition is key that people throughout the entire organization not only hear it, understand it, but they realize what it means to them. Because if you don’t have that, then you’re not going to be able to build a culture where everybody realizes, “Wait a minute. Improving our service, service excellence. That’s a strategic priority for the organization.” And that means it’s not just for the customer service department. It’s actually for every department and every role in every department. Otherwise, what you’ll end up with is something that looks like this. I call this a confused culture.

For example, when you get somebody who says, “The purpose of the action that I take is to hit a sales target”, or somebody else says, “The purpose of the action I take is to comply with the procedures”, or somebody else says, “No, no, no. It’s to be able to be aligned with the government regulations so we don’t violate something.” Or “The purpose of the action I take is to build a new product or to reduce our budget and our expenses.”

Well, those aren’t wrong answers, but they don’t go the next step to say, “Got it. This is the action. This is the outcome. But who values that? And why is it valuable?” When you get everyone to understand this definition and see how it applies to them, you can then produce a cultural alignment where everybody in every department says, “Yes, I do come to work to take action. That’s my job. But I also know that the purpose of my action is not just to follow the procedure. It’s not just to hit the budget. It’s not just to reduce expenses. It’s not just to be in compliance. The purpose of my action is to create value for someone.”