Happy New Year everyone! After a short hiatus, T for Translation is back with renewed energy and fresh ideas. For today’s Straight from the Source, we asked some of our team members what their goals and aspirations are for this year.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

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.

One of CSOFT’s most lovable team members is here to share some localization tips from a project manager’s perspective. Read on to see what Cristina has to say about staying informed, making time for gossip, and smart approaches.

As promised, check out the photos below for a snapshot of the various events that took place during our 2011 World Operations Summit from earlier this month! Since 2004, CSOFT has held an annual operations summit with a different theme, though the purpose has remained consistent: to take part in discussions, engage in learning, and align ourselves with CSOFT’s goals as a quality-driven language service provider. The themes throughout the years have ranges from Accelerating for Growth to Cultivating an Innovative Culture and Passion for Excellence. This year’s theme, A Whole New World, was not only accompanied by song (with North American representation!), but also by the belief that CSOFT is paving a new road to unparalleled innovation and progression within the localization industry.

It was indeed quite the localization extravaganza, and we’re very happy to share it with you all! (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

We had the great privilege and pleasure of welcoming Dr. JoAnn Hackos of Comtech Services to our World Localization Summit last week. In addition to the great honor of having her compete in CSOFT’s annual Stump the Experts game, it was most enlightening to listen in on her keynote presentation on The Role of the OASIS DITA Standard in Translation Management, which outlined the importance of information management and the impact DITA can have on managing translation.

The following is a brief summary of JoAnn’s presentation.

JoAnn Hackos, presenting at CSOFT’s 2011 World Operations Summit.

In keeping with CSOFT tradition, at the end of last week’s World Localization Summit our President and CEO, Ms. Shunee Yee, hosted a Friday Night Party for all of CSOFT’s internal and extended team members, some clients, friends, as well as localization industry experts. Before wine bottles were uncorked and the festivities began, we were all treated to the inaugural CSOFT International Symphony, which was a concert personally hosted by Shunee for all of her friends and colleagues.

The pieces chosen for the concert were all hand-picked around a loose tribute to classical music used in theatre, movies, and television, which made for a pretty interesting mix. And it also made for the best opening sequence to a symphony orchestra ever, which we’ve uploaded to YouTube for your viewing pleasure: