The foundation for delivering World-Class customer service really is pretty simple.  It’s all about caring.  At its very essence,  the more your customers believe that you care – and that they are important to you – the more positively they will perceive their customer service experience.  Yes, I understand that some people want to try and make it sound more complex than that, but folks, it really isn’t.

One of my greatest role models for this philosophy, interestingly, isn’t actually in a “customer service” role – maybe never has been.  Bill Gates is best known as one of the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever known.  But more recently, over the last decade, he and his wife Melinda (another of my role models) have made it their mission to make the world a better place.  To fight horrible diseases such as aids and polio, reduce child mortality, and end poverty.  They have helped save tens of thousands of lives.

No, it’s not about caring about customers, where there is an implicit quid-pro-quo, but it is caring about people – and the principles are no different.

The more I’m learning about the things Bill & Melinda Gates have been doing over the last decade, the more inspired I am.  Their battles aren’t won, but the world is truly better than it was. (I know sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but this is pretty compelling: http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/?cid=bg_gn_ll0_012023)

No global change happens overnight. Although we tend to remember the more pivotal moments in their lives, people like King, Mandela, Ghandi, etc. made their difference over many years of commitment and focus. I believe Mr. & Ms. Gates are in the same category. Today, Bill Gates is best known as the founder of Microsoft – which in its own way changed the world. Future generations, I believe, will know he and his wife as visionaries who believed that the world can indeed be a better place if we all just step up and do something.

Thank you Bill & Melinda, for your inspiration!