What types of customer service positions have you held in your 35 years of experience?
Customer service position by my definition is any position were in you have direct or indirect influence on a customers interaction with a given product or brand. Brand being an identity assigned to a product, service or company (logo, name). The minute you put it on paper, well I guess when you seriously think about it, it becomes a brand. Brand perception is a customers or potential customers assigned perception of that brand. The reason why I mention branding at all is because over 80% of the branding companies can't define it correctly and over 90% of all the marketing companies are in the same situation.
To understand customer interaction then this definition has to be part of the discussion basis. So by my definition, which is branding 101, everything I have ever participated in has, to some extent, been involved in customer service. This includes delivering Kentucky Fried Chicken, Selling Newspapers on the corner, stocking shelves, working in a warehouse fulfilling orders and the shipping or logistics part of customer fulfillment or as frontline mechanic. It also included my stints in sales, purchasing and as a CEO. I also have been involved in several startups both successful and unsuccessful. In nearly all management positions customer service has been a topic of discussion and planning although somewhat narrow in focus and
application to the way I define it today.
When did you realize that consulting was what you wanted to do in life?
The consulting sort of came out of the need to train others that worked for me at the time. Unless you were in a large organization customer service was always by happenstance not by planning and probably even then not very well done.
After awhile I started getting request from other businesses owners to help them in the same endeavor using my experience as a basis for training or helping them to set up their own programs.
Stay tuned on Wednesday for the continuation of the interview! In the meantime, have a great Fourth of July to those of you celebrating in the U.S. ;)
» Interview With Tim Whelan - Part II from CustomersAreAlways
On Monday I posted the first part of the interview with Tim Whelan of Customer Development Center. Today I continue with the interview where Tim tells us more about his experiences... What was the best company that you ever worked... [Read More]
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