 Good evening everyone, my name is Peter Tredder and I am the founder along with being the president and CEO of Journey to Diversity Workplaces. Thank you for joining me here again on the founders blog. This is my second video blog, which I'm quite excited about. So I'm going to go a little bit off topic today. We're going to talk about customer service, something I know about really well. In my past jobs, I have worked in customer service roles, both in retail and non-retail, and they were both fulfilling and not so fulfilling. So I think that there's a lot of expectations in customer service, both from the side of the customer as long as the side from the management. And I think sometimes the two don't always come to the meeting of the minds. So a customer, of course, thinks they're king and customer service is number one, is that used to be the old philosophy? But unfortunately these days, that's not always the case. Why? Well, unfortunately the customer is not always right. I know this from my years of working in a bank and sometimes I have to let them know you're not right and this is why. So I think that as a society we need to take a page and a bit of humility when it comes to being a customer and that it's nice that we can do what we can do, but sometimes we're not the all and end all and the right person. But in other wise customer service, from the perspective of the manager, they're not always right too. Managers can be wrong, have been wrong and sometimes the managers need to know and own up to the problem and do what's right to fix it. Maybe the company did something wrong, maybe something was defective when you got it and if you want your customers to come back you have to treat them with respect as well. Even if it is the customer's fault, you still have to be able to talk to them as a human being. And this goes into further management scope because if a manager isn't talking to a customer with politeness and respect, they might not be talking to their employees like that and this is a huge issue, right? The number one reason an employee leaves a job is because of their manager. Why? Their manager is being an ass and I'm not afraid to say that word. The manager might be an ass. Maybe they shouldn't be in a management role. There's a hundred different things that managers can do. Are they in the right job? Are they in the wrong job? I don't know. But maybe that's something that needs to be explored between that manager and their boss. Is their boss a director? Maybe they are. I don't know. But customer service, you know, I feel customer service is the cornerstone of any customer facing industry. If you're selling raffle tickets for a kid's school or you're selling beer at the beer store, anything like that, customer service is number one because if you don't have customers coming in the store, your management isn't getting a bonus. So I don't want to say it needs to trickle down instead it needs to trickle up. Your customer service frontline people need to provide exceptional skills and then from that your managers need to provide exceptional skills to your customer service people and on up the ladder up the pyramid, up to the top of the pyramid, the top being the CEO. And so I think that with customer service, as customer service people on the frontline, we could take more time, be more understanding. Something happened in that person's life. It's so hard to understand what the person is going through if you don't take the time to listen. Take the time to listen to your customers, your employees, or whoever it is, don't just rush them out of your office or out the door because you've got people waiting in line. Instead as a manager, maybe you should plan to have more employees on. Yeah, I know it may cost you a little bit more money, but you'll have happier customers and happier employees. And at the end of the day, isn't that what you want? To make more money? Your employees more productive and your customers spending more money at your business? That's what I want. And I'm pretty sure that's what you want too. Tell me what you think. Comment down below either on YouTube or on the blog or on Facebook or social media or tweet us and let us know what you think. Join us again next month for our next topic on the video edition of the Founders blog. Good night.