Importance of Diversity to a Great Service Experience
If you read my book The Service Journey, you know I have gained my conviction for great service by having gone through situations which gave me a personal appreciation for service's fundamental premise: actions produce reactions. Many statistics also prove this to be true, but for me these statistics have personal meaning, as I have worked in many different industries that have seen this premise in action, through unsuccessful leveraged buyouts, fraud, and most recently the financial services upheaval.In each of these situations, calamity could have been avoided if the voice of the dissenter was heeded. On one particular occasion the voice of the dissenter was my own. In my late twenties, I worked for a manufacturing company as an accountant and financial analyst. After completing the cash forecast, I told senior executives they were on the brink of imminent financial collapse; they brought in a consultant to show me where my analysis was incorrect. "Did you show this to senior executives" "Yes", I replied. "And what did they say?" "They called you to show me why I was wrong."
Even in today's online Wall Street Journal, I read about Lehman firing an employee of fourteen years because he 'raised red flags about the firm's accounting in 2008'. Diversity is a term that is flippantly used these days. Many firms believe and say they are diverse. Often, they tie their diversity program only to people of different gender or race, however, and, they really don't want someone to challenge them. You only need to look as far as the job advertisements, to realize true diverse viewpoints are not being sought. Financial services firms only want to hire people with financial services backgrounds, and the same is true with consumer products, pharmaceutical, food, advertising industries ...and the list goes on.
This practice however, hurts shareholders, employees and clients. In addition to being able to avoid calamities if diverse viewpoints are sought out, there are service benefits to having a diverse workforce - one that not only incorporates differences in gender and race, but differences in culture viewpoint and industries:
- Hiring diverse experiences challenges the norms. Today, most products and services offered are similar and undifferentiated. Part of the reason this is true because the people who work at these industries tend to all have the same life experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints. In the banking world, the traditional mold of a bank was broken when Commerce Bank (now TD Bank) was created by a marketing executive instead of a banking executive. They have actually provided a better service experience by creating banks that are open seven days a week, open late, offer free gift cards, gift envelopes and pens, notary public service, and the list goes on. This occurred all because someone started a bank who wasn't confined by what a bank was supposed to look like.
- Hiring diverse experiences also matches the viewpoints of your clientele more closely. Great service is attained when we conform to our clients, not the other way around. And diversity evidences itself in the largest and smallest of ways. I once asked a financial services firm what types of reading material they had in their lobby. Financial periodicals was the reply. But if the firm hired people who more closely matched their clientele, they may have realized their clients were more interested in traveling, running their small businesses, golf and retirement, and their reading materials may have matched their clients, instead of their own viewpoint.
In order to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, people from different races, cultures, gender and yes - even diverse industries need to be sought out and their opinions carefully considered. Your business and clients will reap the benefits.
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Posted by Susan Hoekstra at 3/16/2010 6:14 AM 
Categories: Diversity and Customer Service, Leading Customer Service
Tags: Good Customer Service Diversity Susan Hoekstra Great Service and Diversity Customer service The Service Journey Hiring for Diversity Bad Service
Categories: Diversity and Customer Service, Leading Customer Service
Tags: Good Customer Service Diversity Susan Hoekstra Great Service and Diversity Customer service The Service Journey Hiring for Diversity Bad Service
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3/26/2010 1:32 PM
BLOG.TheServiceJourney.COM wrote:
It seems as if my diversity
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4/14/2010 11:57 AM
BLOG.TheServiceJourney.COM wrote:
It seems as if my diversity
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6/11/2010 12:36 PM
BLOG.TheServiceJourney.COM wrote:
It seems as if my diversity
I love that this topic came up. As an advertising marketing person I have often had the question: Do you only work in XXX industry. In fact, my experience working in different industries - from manufacturing to selling apartment homes has been a tremendous benefit. Just one example is the understanding I learned of manufacturing processes allowed me to do a complete analysis of a "move-in gift". I was able to improve the packaging and display as well as make the 3,000+ gifts they delivered by hand, much easier to store and deliver. The result was a cost savings on the gift, the storage space needed, and the manpower to deliver the gifts. The fact is, you can always be a fresh pair of eyes by using your past experience from other industries. Now, as I search for a new job, I hope others too will see this.
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I have found this lack of diversity in my current job search. I recently finished a masters degree to gain the knowledge needed to enter a new field, but am finding that the degree isn't helping me. Everyone wants someone with 3 - 5 years experience in the fiedl. I don't doubt the current economic climate and unemployment rates are influencing it, but I'm pretty excited about what I've chosen to study and to do, and I can't even get in front of anyone to tell them that.
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