Sucking is the First Step to Being Sorta Good at Customer Service

What every customer service blogger, consultant, speaker, writer, and software provider WON’T tell you is that it’s ok to suck at customer service.

Really…it’s ok to actually suck at customer service. I mean, not forever, but part of trying something new means that you almost always will suck at it at first.

Getting to the point where customer service is good, or even great takes a long, long time. Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian reminds us that no matter who you are and how much experience you have, you’re going to suck at first.

You can be great and still not know what you’re doing

Although you may never have heard about Ohanian’s reddit, Breadpig, or hipmunk, he’s seen as an Internet master in the tech community and he’ll be the first one to tell you: “I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

Getting really good at customer service takes a long time. That’s why you didn’t hear about Zappos and it’s crazy and zany customer service culture back in 1999 when the company began doing business. In 1988, you probably didn’t hear Nordstrom’s famous tire return story.

It’s easy to be held up by the fear of failure or worrying that others won’t see what you know you can do. But when we’re creating something great doubt from others and lack of support is a natural part of the process. You have to fail and fail fast as you work towards finding out what works and how it works best.

Never compromise on customer focus

Most of us will spin our wheels at first. It will take time before we really get the hang of what we’re doing and find that groove of doing it right. But as we focus on treating customers like royalty, even as we move, it seems, from one mistake to another, those customers will begin to see us for who we are.

Maybe not all of them will stick it out, but most will and the relationship you will develop on the way to success will be magical.