A guest leaves a room service tray outside her hotel door and it’s not picked up for hours, even as employees walk up and down the halls, practically tripping on that tray.
To the guest, the hotel staff just seem sloppy. And it won’t be helpful to explain to her that the problem occurs because the hotel has two different departments: food & beverage (which is responsible for removing the tray) and housekeeping (whose staff are walking the halls ignoring that same tray, it not being their responsibility). Customers don’t care about your org chart.
Businesspeople are human, and tend to view their own company whatever way they’ve grown accustomed to viewing their company. They needed to be prodded to take the leap of viewing it the way their customers do.
There is a world of difference. Amazon.com has its own curious internal terminology and organization, but you never, ever, have to learn its lingo, or how the company is arranged, in order to purchase, return, cancel an item. Everything is arranged the way the customer thinks of things: “Where’s my stuff?” for example.
From Micah Solomon – author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.
See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at https://micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”
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Its exactly right that customers don’t care about your org charts. Its the sole responsibility of the organization how they manage their departments and their particular employees.