Thanks for stopping by for our final entry of CSOFT’s Customer Service Week with our fifth, and arguably most important, virtue. If you’re just joining us now, the concept of Customer Service Week originated from the desire to enhance the traditional customer service model with a fresh and more efficient approach. Every day this week, we’ve introduced different virtues that we believe are central to quality customer service. So far, we’ve already covered the importance of focus, perception, responsiveness, and innovation.

Each one of these virtues was chosen with the ideas and concepts of the Taoist tradition in mind. Thousands of years ago, Taoism was founded on the basic belief that followers should find harmony with the Tao, or the Way. The Tao describes a balanced and harmonious way of living with the natural order. Similarly, we believe customer service should not be a reaction to a situation that occurs; rather, it should be an integral part of the entire buyer-seller relationship, shaping attitude, behavior and disposition. Today we will discuss the value of having a sense of humor.

We’re back with day four of CSOFT’s Customer Service Week series to offer you another fresh perspective on ways to enhance your approach to service. Similar to each post this week, today we will discuss how to improve  customer service through a Taoist lens. If this sounds wacky and offbeat… well, we admit that it is! But give it a few more minutes’ thought (and reading), and trust us, it’ll all come together in the end.

The philosophy and teachings behind Taoism form more than just a simple belief; Tao is a way of life that requires mindful application in daily living. As it applies to customer service, we have long thought that the traditional customer service model needed a change. Customer service should not just be a reaction to situations gone wrong or focused merely on placating dissatisfied customers; like Taoism, customer service should be a combined set of beliefs, attitudes and practices that build and nurture the relationship between client and service provider.

In our previous posts, we’ve set forth the concept of focus, the importance of understanding your client’s angle of perception, and the art of responsiveness. Today we will discuss how innovation is related to customer service.

It’s day three of Customer Service Week, where each day of this week is devoted to highlighting different ways to transform the traditional customer service model into a more enhanced, dynamic approach to foster better  relationships between clients and service providers. Why is this important? According to the International Customer Service Association, 68% of customers will stop doing business with a company because of bad service.

It is important to note that customer service doesn’t just exist behind a designated counter at your local shopping center, or on the phone when reporting a faulty delivery—customer service underlines the entire supplier-buyer relationship. It is present even before a official relationship begins and (should) remain in sight during the entire exchange. When understanding this, we start to see customer service not as a process, but as the adaptation of certain virtues in day-to day work. Hence, this week’s customer service series can really be defined as the Tao of Customer Service.

Like Taoism, customer service describes a practice—not a reaction nor a process—but a practice that should be integrated into daily work life. By identifying certain virtues to follow, your customer service model can be transformed into something that is beneficial to all.

In parts one and two of Customer Service Week, we highlighted the value in sharpening your focus and identifying your client’s angle of perception. These two virtues emphasize approach and behavior. Today’s post will concentrate on how to respond in various customer service situations.

Welcome back for part two of Customer Service Week! Yesterday, we emphasized the importance of maintaining an unwavering focus to better understand customers’ needs. Such a focus will help service providers place greater attention on active listening, thereby producing more accurate and positive results.

For this series, we have been using Taoism to identify what we believe are the most essential virtues that underline great customer service. Why Taoism? Because Taoism is founded on a system of simple beliefs and values that are implemented into everyday life. We believe in a customer service approach that is integrated into the whole equation, not just used for problem solving or to pacify a customer.

In today’s post, we address the benefits of understanding the client’s angle of perception.

The Second Virtue: Acknowledge the varied nature of perception

Your customer’s perception counts for everything. That is, doing what you think is best for your customer isn’t necessarily what they think is best. Granted, sometimes you might feel that what the customer wants isn’t good for them, but the point is that regardless of how well or accurately you execute a project, the only thing that matters is whether or not your customer feels that their needs have been met. After all, it’s a safe bet that they’re more familiar with their needs than you are. And learning to appreciate that fact is a natural repercussion of properly applied focus.

From the early 20^th-century phrase “The customer is always right” to Burger King’s Have it Your Way slogan,  the buyer has always been the focus of great attention in the business world, for no insignificant reason. After all, without the buyer, a great product or business plan means nothing at all. Creating and developing a professional relationship with customers sounds easy, but it can actually be quite complex when you are dealing with cross-cultural differences, busy schedules, multiple projects… and the list goes on and on.

Earlier this summer, CSOFT’s very own Jesse He was featured in CIDM’s (the Center for Information-Development Management) July newsletter with a fascinating article on the philosophy of customer service. Jesse has been with CSOFT from the very beginning, a central and fundamental team member who has been visionary in developing our highly attentive approach to customer service. His article in CIDM’s newsletter was so enlightening that it would be a shame to not share it with you all. Therefore, we welcome you all to Customer Service Week, where we will introduce CSOFT’s five virtues of customer service through a Taoist lens.

The Tao of Customer Service

Tao (sometimes known as “Dao”) can be loosely translated as “the Way.” It represents the natural order of the universe as a whole, and also the path for synchronizing or aligning yourself with that order. The Tao itself is nameless and unidentifiable, but it can be understood to a degree by adopting certain virtues (in Chinese, these virtues are known as Te or De) that derive from Tao.

Like the Tao, “good customer service” can’t be defined in a strictly coherent manner. Because good customer service isn’t a process; it’s more of an attitude or disposition that can only be achieved in reflection of certain virtues you adopt in your day-to-day work.

Guest blog entry by Petra Held, European Business Development Manager and Localization Expert at CSOFT

Apart from having the special technical knowledge required to sell a product or service, sellers also have to take into consideration different aspects of mutual interaction, like specific cultural knowledge of your target market(s), which should be used to develop a brand of tailored charisma that is indirectly reinforced through such knowledge.

Europe is a multilingual and multicultural geographical area, rather small compared to some countries, and the sheer amount of diversity between the Northern and Southern parts cannot be more pronounced. The climatic differences alone are severe, and over the course of the centuries, have doubtlessly influenced the various mentalities of inhabitants throughout the continent. Even if globalization has helped to modify the insular way of thinking among European cultures, practically nobody inside the community is really eager to give up their identity, nor their culture, regardless of material advantage.

Happy International Project Management Day! According to internationalpmday.org, the purpose of International Project Management Day is to encourage project-based organizations to demonstrate appreciation for—and recognize the achievements of—project managers and their teams. In celebration of this annual event, we want to highlight the achievements of one of our very own, very motivated project managers, Jo Zhang.

In this featured interview, Jo (shown on the left) talks with Melissa Taing (right) about the challenges of managing localization projects, how to overcome them, and then makes some suggestions on how we can all better express appreciation to the PMs that we work with every day in our industry.

Born and raised in Beijing, Jo Zhang has lived in the capital of China most of her life. After graduating from university in Qingdao, where she majored in English, Jo worked in client and account management for Apple before joining CSOFT as a project manager, where she has provided exemplary service for the past three years.

When not playing e-mail tag with translators, Jo enjoys hiking and traveling. She also loves trying out new cuisine, but will always return to an unwavering love for spicy food. Her positive energy and optimistic outlook on life is nothing short of infectious. Enjoy!

Guest blog entry by Tammy Werner, Director of CSOFT’s MedL10N Division

On my flight from Miami to Seattle for Localization World earlier this month, it occurred to me that commercial airlines and professional LSPs have a lot in common (except when it comes to drinks and snacks).

When we plan a vacation or business trip, we tend to think only of our final destination and cost. Depending on the distance and our comfort in driving ourselves there, we may opt to hire a professional to “do the driving” for us. Translation projects are really no different.

In preparation for my trip to Seattle, the thought of driving there did not even cross my mind. The first thing I did was go online to price the available commercial flights. Once I found the most attractive flight based on my criteria, I booked the ticket to lock in the best rate. Sure, there were cheaper flights (shhh, don’t tell my Finance Director), but I didn’t want to waste my valuable time flying from Miami to Seattle via Maine.

The recent news of Steven Slater’s F-bomb-filled tirade, which ended with him quitting his job at JetBlue by hopping down the emergency slide with a beer in each fist, got me to thinking… what has happened to customer service in the US? Mr. Slater has become the poster boy for flight attendant rights. There’s talk of books, reality shows, speaking engagements, and personal appearances—all as a reward for acting like a chowderhead and breaking no small number of federal safety laws.

Granted, there is something to be said for the daily pangs of the underpaid, under-appreciated working class in America. It’s not easy out there, especially while we’re still crawling in the shadow of a global recession. But being nasty to each other isn’t going to improve the quality of anyone’s life, nor is it going to patch up the wounds of an already bleeding economy. Now, more than ever, companies should pay more attention to customer service to attract what money’s still being spent.