The other day I was at our local office supply store to purchase ink cartridges. (It seems like I go through cartridges like they were water!) After selecting what I needed, I went up to the cash register to pay for my purchase. After standing there for several minutes, I realized that I was not going to be waited on.

Looking around, I noticed a line at the copy center counter so I wandered on over and joined the line of several people waiting to check out or place a copy order. In the back of the store there were two customer service employees talking to one another. Another employee was running back and forth from the store room stocking shelves.

Why were three employees ignoring five customers standing in line? Yes, at least one of these employees was busy, but I equate this to arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. What good is stocking shelves when you have customers that need assistance? As soon as I arrived back at my office, I did a little research on the internet and found another local source for my ink cartridges. The office supply employee can restock the shelves all day long and I won't be back in to purchase ink cartridges.

So let's define what is Customer Service? We know good service when we see it, but how would you define Customer Service? A common theory is "The customer is always right." This is not a good definition of Customer Service because if the customer is always right - what does that make you? Wrong. Another popular conception is "meeting or exceeding the needs of the customer." Who defines what those needs are? The customer - not you.

Let's think about this Customer Service definition: "When customer meets service." This applies to anyone in your organization that comes into contact with the customer. From the person who answers your phones, to the Customer Service person that works with the customer to define their needs, to the accountant that calls about an invoice. Everyone is involved in the process of providing customer service.

Take a look at your organization, is the customer meeting service? Is everyone on board with providing the best possible service? Hire a secret shopper or ask a friend to interact with your customer service employees and make recommendations on how you could improve the customer service interaction.