Sept. 5 will mark the two-year anniversary of my dad’s passing. He had many wonderful phrases. Many of his sayings didn’t make sense to me as a young boy. Some even annoyed me as a teenager, but now much later, they all make sense. One that popped into my mind this week was: “Money is just the fruit that falls from the tree of life when we serve people well.”
What I realize my dad was saying in this one quirky phrase is that we’re all meant to be of service to each other. Sometimes we’re the server. Sometimes we’re the customer. Sometimes we’re the co-worker.
Whereas most people don’t consider themselves to be in the “customer service” business (and perhaps even see “service” as below them), I’d propose we all work within the service industry.
Allow me to magnify with three examples.
- I recently sent an email to a senior leader within an organization. I immediately received an email response from him, which is rare, as he normally takes several days to do so. I opened the email in anticipation. Sadly, it was an automated template: “I’m out of office.” What I found so lacking was any sense of service to others. I’m a great believer that organizations are interdependent entities — meaning every employee is directly or indirectly dependent on the work of another. To state that you’re just “out of office” demonstrates no care for others — who may find it quite helpful to know exactly when you will be back in the office, or whom to contact in your absence.
- My second example of poor service relates to a government entity that had recently issued a request for proposal. I diligently read through the 312-page document and although confident our company could serve the stated scope of work, I did have a handful of questions. I was delighted to find, on page 74, the contact details of the person to email if a vendor had any questions. Sweet. I then invested about 45 minutes constructing my email, cross-referencing my questions to page numbers, paragraphs and section references. Send. I got an automated response to say the employee handling that RFP was out-of-office until Sept. 19. On the bright side, I knew when she was back at her desk. The bad news was the RFP was due 5 p.m., Sept. 18! With no one else indicated for contact on the RFP, we chose not to submit. I decided to let the contact person know about this oversight. I did eventually get an email back from her, which consisted of just six words: “Yeah, sorry about that. My bad.” And that’s civil service?
- My third example is the growing trend we see of people attending online meetings, not turning their camera on and not even participating verbally or via the electronic chat feature. I spoke with a manager recently who asked my advice and I made some suggestions. I’ve encouraged him to emphasize that when someone joins a meeting with other colleagues online and chooses to turn their camera off, it’s like them walking into a boardroom and sitting down with a black trash liner over their head and shoulders. Not only is it weird but it’s also rude to your colleagues — your internal customers. I encouraged him to also convey that one step worse is to walk into a boardroom wearing the black trash liner and then remaining completely silent during the meeting. That’s exactly how it can come across when people refuse to participate. It’s just plain rude and you can be perceived as irrelevant and as someone who adds zero value to the team. That’s very risky when economic tides change and layoffs sail in. People who have a spirit to serve are worth their weight in gold.
As Dad said, we’re all just people serving others. Sometimes we serve and sometimes we’re being served. But we’re all in the customer service business. Even though my dad is now sadly “out-of-office” from an earthly perspective, I’m grateful he taught me such timeless principles. I hope you can hear him, too, through the words on this page. I miss him so much. He was a good, good father.
Paul Butler is a Santa Clarita resident and a client partner with Newleaf Training and Development of Valencia (newleaftd.com). For questions or comments, email Butler at [email protected].
