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Human Caring for Customers
Robert Rabbin
Like Haley Joel Osment’s character Cole Sear in the 1999
movie The Sixth Sense, I see things. I don’t see dead people, like he
did, but I see things. Rather, I notice things. I notice the way in which people
work: I notice if they like their work; if they are happy to be on the job; if
they express their enthusiasm and joy; if they embody a sense of purpose and
pride; if they make a human connection with other people, particularly
customers; if they treat their customers as if they truly care about them.
I noticed that the young man behind the candy counter of the movie theatre in
the Victoria Gardens cinema in Richmond never looked into the eyes of anyone,
never extended his hand to take their money or return change, never smiled,
never gave any hint of recognizing the human beings that stood before him, one
after another. Then, his girlfriend stopped by to chat him up. When he saw her
approach, his face lit up and he broke into a huge smile. I watched him become
fully present, suddenly alive, engaged, and attentive. And then I realized that
it was his choice to do so. I realized that how we are with one another is
simply a matter of choice. I also realized that customer care and human caring
were the same thing.
That’s when I realized the whole sector of organisational and business skills
development called ‘customer service’ misses the point: We are meant to care for
our customers as human beings, because that caring creates the context for
elevated living, for meaning, delight, and joy. Every aspect of conventional
customer service philosophy and practice is subsumed in this greater and far
grander idea: caring for each other as human beings is how we become fully
human.
There is a Zulu word, ubuntu, which literally means ‘humanness’: caring,
sharing, and being in harmony with all of creation. Ubuntu is a social and
spiritual philosophy whose essential meaning is ‘a person is a person through
other persons’. The practice of ubuntu is fundamentally inclusive, involving
respect and concern for one's family and one's neighbors. The spirit of this
word and idea is that everyone is a member of one’s family and is one’s neighbor.
Extending this as metaphor to the business world, every human being on the
planet is one’s customer. Ubuntu is an exquisitely simple principle of customer
service: caring for each human being as a precious friend.
Put aside for a moment everything you have learned in customer service training
programs. Put aside every business advantage a glossy customer service
philosophy is supposed to deliver. Put aside all ideas of customer experience,
customer loyalty and retention, and positive word of mouth. Put aside the very
idea of ‘customer’.
Just remember two simple principles:
The first principle is to love your work. Work is love made visible, said
the poet Kahlil Gibran. Work is where our sense of purpose and the music of our
passions intersect to create visible love in the form of work.
The second principle is ubuntu. Is there an experience in life more profound,
more beautiful, more exhilarating than the deep connection made between two
human beings meeting on the ground of ubuntu, meeting with the pure intention to
share, care, and be in harmony? It is, to be sure, compelling, inspiring and
memorable.
Imagine what might happen if all the human beings, all the customers, who came
in contact with anyone, anywhere in your business organisation—in person, on the
phone, via email—were engulfed by the force field of people who love their work
and who connect with and care deeply about each person as if they were a most
precious friend.
These two principles are not a strategy for business success, they are a
strategy for human success. This is, after all, what we all most want: to be
fully alive, present, awake, passionate and connected to the core of our
humanity. Business success can only flow from human success. Whatever else you
may need to develop within your business to support these two principles—skills,
organisational structures, management policies, cultural values—will flow easily
and effortlessly from a whole-hearted commitment to these two simple precepts.
I may not see dead people, but I can see that only those business organisations
which embrace these two principles, which teach and practice these two
principles, will survive, thrive and prosper in the years to come. Why?
Because—and I can’t put this more simply or kindly—it is the way things are
meant to be.
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