A: Hello, Susan. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
S: Yeah, I’ve been working for about 20 years, working with individuals, teams, organisations with the intention of really helping them to be as effective as they can be at whatever it is they’re doing.
A: And thank you so much for your review of the book. What impressions did you get? What stood out for you?
S: I think simplicity actually of what you said in the book. A lot of it is common sense, but it’s very easy when we’re in situations where we’re dealing with customers and there’s maybe a lot of emotion or we’re just new in a situation. I think overthink over complicates the situation, but I think what really came out for me in the book was it’s about human beings. This is human beings interacting with human beings. So it’s the simplicity of that that really stood out for me. Not over complicating it because, you know, sometimes technical elements of our jobs can be complicated enough. So yeah, just remembering we’re connecting to humans. I really like that element of it.
A: Yeah, thank you. It’s pretty much common sense, isn’t it, but it’s not always as a customer that we experience. And just finally, to pick another part out of what you mentioned in your review, you talked about the third section – the G – for guiding customers with integrity and this idea of us being more fully ourselves, stood out for you. Can you say what that stood out for you?
S: I think it just really spoke to me as, again, something quite common sense, but it feels like again this sense of… this is how you should behave. I spent a lot of years working in hospitality, so customer service is a big part of what I learned and what I was training people in. We didn’t have a job role in a customer service environment. There is quite a lot of process procedure steps we need to follow, standards we need to meet, all of which are important but I think that can sometimes de-personalise and maybe even dehumanise the experience.
So the fact that you were suggesting putting the idea out there that if we connect with who we are, then we need to connect with who our customer is, and that’s back to that point about it’s human beings interacting with human beings.
So it just felt different for me. As I say, I’ve worked in and around customer service for about 20 years and it’s something I’ve always believed in but I’ve not come across many people who are saying this actually is a really good way to enhance your customer service. So it was, I guess, kind of reassuring that “Ah, right, I’m not the only one that thinks this.” You gave some great examples in the book of how it can work and yeah, I think it’s quite liberating, quite empowering for people, which sometimes customer service doesn’t feel like that in my experience. It can feel the opposite. For that reason I think it will engage people because they’ll think, “Ah, actually I don’t have to try and be someone else. I can just be me.”
A: And if people are interested in finding out more about what you do, I know you have a website. Would you like to give your website a plug here?
S: Yeah. My business is SG Development Solutions. It’s a very long name, but www.sgdevelopmentsolutions.com. So a lot of my stuff is based on mindfulness which I think is partly why… some of what you’ve asked me there, I think that being present, being in the moment, is so powerful in lots of situations, but in these sorts of customer situations I think more than helpful. So yes, there’s lots of resources and things on my website so you’re welcome to have a look.
A: Fabulous. Thanks ever so much for your time and good luck. I’ll ask you to review the next book when it’s out!
S: Definitely. Yeah, look forward to that.
A: Thanks, Susan.
S: Thank you.