Customer service died in 2020. Whether it was due to staffing shortages, supply chain issues or perhaps, in some cases, businesses deciding to leverage the situation to lower customers’ expectations – and thereby their costs – service took a massive hit.

Maybe it’s unfair to blame the COVID-19 pandemic, though. Some areas of service were already on a slippery slope in Australia; maybe the pandemic simply shone a spotlight on our inconsistencies?

In any case, it’s no surprise that people’s expectations of themselves, others and the brands and businesses they interact with have altered in the past few years. The question is, has service been resurrected, or have we lowered our expectations forever?

Outstanding Service is Rare

Those who have been paying attention to the seismic shift happening in our society will have noticed that the phrase ‘customer service’ doesn’t exactly evoke the enthusiasm it once did.

Cast your own mind back over the past week, as you moved through the physical and digital world of retail as a customer yourself: how many outstanding service experiences did you have?

If you can recall an example, then I do hope you took a moment to complete a survey, do a Google review or praise that business in some way. Because they’re the exception to the rule, offering a glimpse of hope and inspiration for the future of service.

If you can’t recall a single example of outstanding service in the past week, you’re not alone. And in fact, this is why it’s never been easier to win at service in retail. So why are so few companies doing it?

Well, it’s not because they don’t care, or that they’re happy delivering mediocre service. Rather, they may have forgotten that service starts at the top. An outstanding service experience is a sign of service leadership in the individual, team or organization.

The Erosion of Service

Service leadership, in simple terms, is continually asking yourself, ‘Am I doing this for others’ sake, or to further my own interests?’

Leadership is hard, and even harder now than it was in the past, particularly in the retail sector where discretionary spend is down and customer expectations are higher than ever.

I believe the erosion of service in society reflects a decline in our humanity: our changed world now encourages people to focus on their own interests. Leaders protect their power. People protect their comfort.

This is part of the reason why workplaces cultures lack resilience, and why we have a service culture that lacks enthusiasm.

As we move swiftly into this era of AI and automation, retailers and service industry businesses are madly rushing to digitize for efficiency, and it’s easy to succumb to the narrative that machines will replace humans in almost every field, including retail. It’s even easier to miss the nuances that make human service irreplaceable.

Generosity is How we Level Up our Service

There’s a difference between offering a service and being willing to serve. Both include giving, but only one is generous.

Perhaps, in Australia, we’ve defaulted to ‘offering a service’ – a lazy style of customer service, shall we say – and we need to remember that generosity of words, time, attention and human spirit is what sets an outstanding brand apart.

Does it really come down to that: a more generous society in which service leadership is the heart of all our businesses and brands?

Let’s not miss our opportunity; let’s take responsibility for answering this new question of how to reclaim the human in ‘human service’.

It’s going to take more than a pep talk and some customer service training to create an enthusiastic, engaged and highly service-oriented staff who can level up the way people serve in business.

The invitation to lead a new service leadership revolution is here.

Be ambitious, please do – with ambition that’s not about personal gain but about leaving a legacy of having helped others achieve what they needed to. Provide answers, please do – but focus less on what you know and be more curious about the unknown.

Strive for results, please, please do – we want to see retail business in Australia roar through the recession and come out strong. Just know that how you get those results is more important than the results themselves.