Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about kindness and whether or not it can be taught to customer service representatives. Why is it that in a professional setting, one service representative can treat customers with kindness and helpfulness while other reps could care less by acting rude and unhelpful? While it makes sense to me that not everyone around us is inherently kind, empathetic and yearns to help, it makes absolutely no sense to see a total disregard to kindness in professional customer service agents. So, is it possible to teach kindness in the field of customer service? Real world story: When I was growing up, kindness, respect, empathy and helpfulness were taught at home by my parents. And they led by example and held us kids 
responsible for demonstrating these positive behaviors toward others. For example, on one occasion, our local dry cleaner gave me too much money back. My mother made me return it. A great lesson was taught and learned. When asking for something, we were required to precede the request with “Please.” When someone gave us something, we were taught to say “Thank you.” Sometimes, we even sent a written thank you note. Imagine that? It seems in today’s world, children are being reared with an air of entitlement. They want and get everything they desire, without regard to anyone else. It is rare to find a young person who treats others —old or young—with respect or who says “Please and Thank You.” So, if positive behaviors were previously taught to children at home successfully, can we teach them now to grown ups who work as professionals in the field of customer service? Or is it too late. If it is too late, how can we ensure that we hire the right people with the right attitude? Finding people to deliver exceptional customer service that includes kindness, empathy and helpfulness is getting harder and harder. So, we MUST start with the selection process. A candidate with the right foundation and attitude CAN be trained and WILL succeed. It’s also a lot easier to turn around a representative who shows a solid foundation of initial positive behaviors than trying to turn around someone who doesn’t. Trying to make someone who thinks and cares only about himself is not only useless, but it’s a waste of time, effort and money—not to mention your sanity! Strategies that Turn it Around: How to know if your customer service candidates have the right foundation and attitude:
- Gratitude: When you ask them how they relieve stress, do they mention the things they are grateful for? When you ask them about their failures, do they mention the lessons they learned and how thankful they are for learning them?
- Empathy: When you ask them what they would say if someone said, “My stomach is killing me?” Do they say, “What did you eat?” Or do they say, “I’m so sorry your stomach hurts. How long has it been hurting?”
- Kindness: How do they treat the janitor, their co-worker, a waitress, or you? Ask situational questions and listen carefully to their answers.
- Team player: When candidates have free time, do they offer to help an overworked or stressed out co-worker?
- Lifelong learner: Do they actively seek out knowledge and training?
Remember: For many people, kindness, courtesy and compassion are learned at an early age through parents and teachers who lead by example and who reinforce the principles. However, knowledge does not always equal action. If people have the right foundation and attitude, they can usually be trained on how to deliver extraordinary service. This not only satisfies the employee, it satisfies the customer—and isn’t that what it’s all about? What are YOUR thoughts on training people on kindness? Please share in the comments section below.