Spiritual Principles in Business Customer Service & Team Management
Business principles are spiritually sound, and customer service & team management for the conscious-minded business owner are crucial to the health of your business. Customer service is about using your resources and talking to people. The basic spiritual principle of treating people the way you would want to be treated is applicable in customer service within your business. Honesty, integrity, and
Are you familiar with the "triangle of trade-offs"? The three elements of that triangle are Good, Cheap, or Fast-- which means you can have good service, you can have it done quickly, or you can have high quality... but you only get to choose two. One of the three will always be lost at the expense of the other two. Customer service is about identifying which of those two your customer wants. A high level of customer service takes time and comes with a higher quality or high-cost product. Some customers will ask for something that isn't logistically possible, so offering customer service requires you explaining what it would take to meet their need. If they want a project done quickly and cheaply, explain what it will take from them and what they will give up in the process (quality). There is a certain amount of grace in being able to fulfill your business. Clients who are angry
A high level of customer service has built-in limitations, your job is to operate honestly, authentically, and gracefully.
Team management means managing the team of people with whom you work. As the business owner, maintaining your position as the leader means being friendly with your team, not being their friend. Friendship functions on the level of currency; I babysit for you, you help me move houses. The currency of friendship doesn't belong within your business; employees are paid with actual currency. Employees give you their time and skill and in return, you pay them for their time and work they've done for your company. If you start using the currency of friendship, they may begin to develop the tendency of coming in late, leaving early, or canceling, in other words, doing things that would be acceptable within a friendship. There's a human aspect of your employees and you understand there are times when they need to leave early or come in late or take off, so you build those sick days or call-outs into their benefits and wages in the form of paid or unpaid time off or leave.
Integrate your employees or independent contractors into your decision-making, ensure the work you've assigned them can be completed by them and within the time you've assigned, and offer support while keeping open the lines of communication. Team members knowing that they play a part, and remaining clear about who's steering the boat, assures them that they are important and that you are on course.
Your job is to understand that your business needs the capacity to grow; it may need more revenue coming in or it needs expenses cut. You are the liaison between your business and the experts who can help the specific area in which your business needs to grow. An honest assessment of your employees and their capacities, as well as an honest assessment for yourself and your capacity, allows the team to smoothly operate.
Servant leadership is about modeling the role of what you want the culture of your company to have. Serve your team so they can serve the business. You know the original vision of the business and you support them in fulfilling the business and they do the work in the middle under your direction but with their own autonomy, which frees you up to work on the business, not in it. Your power is in the vision, delegation, and the follow-up with your team.