Three Essential Qualities Of Effective Service Leaders

Last month Bill Gates worked a shift in customer service at his daughter’s startup. While some cynics might view this as a clever publicity stunt for a fledgling company , Gates has been taking the human side of doing business seriously for a long time – in fact, in his book ‘Business @ the Speed of Thought’ written in 1999, he posited: “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” This points to a fundamental truth when it comes to service leadership and reminds us that even the most successful business leaders of our time care deeply about the customer experience.

Over the years I have I have been privileged to get to know customer-focused CEOs and C-suite leaders from across diverse industries as part of my everyday work. This has given me a first-hand view and insight into what it takes to lead through service. And as part of my Head to Head series and podcast, I’ve interviewed over a 100 leaders from businesses from a range of sectors including BT Group, Waitrose, Lloyds, Sky and Eon.

Each leader is different, but many of the best share a common attitude and similar traits. Here are three that have stood out to me over the years.

Leaders genuinely care about the customer

It may seem obvious, but the best leaders I know care. In fact, they care deeply.

This earns them loyalty and trust – both from their customers and from their own employees. But it can also take a toll on the very best, as they actively listen and sincerely respond to every person they hear from.

Leading an organization with a service-led mission and purpose sounds self-evident, but it’s not always that easy. We expect a lot from our CEOs. Of course, they are often well remunerated, but they are also required to juggle a myriad of competing and often complex interests of customers, colleagues, shareholders, and investors, all whilst making high-stake decisions under pressure and receiving a constant bombardment of information, data, and feedback on their companies and personal performance. And given the current challenging economic times, there are equally understandable demands to improve efficiency and focus on the bottom line.

Against this backdrop, staying razor focused on the customer requires someone who has real empathy, makes decisions based around doing the right thing, and remains committed to the true purpose of their organization: to serve the end user.

Bill Gates talks on a phone (Photo by Jeff Christensen/Newsmakers)

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They lead by example

Saying the right things about commitment to service only goes so far. It is our behavior that really matters.

To truly understand the customer, leaders must hear their grievances, understand their frustrations, and try to solve their problems firsthand. For those more accustomed to sitting in boardrooms, this takes humility.

But the learnings for leaders are innumerable as they learn what is working well (for both customers and colleagues), where the pain points are, and where our systems either support or hinder solutions.

One excellent example of a CEO spending time in the trenches is Christ Pitt, CEO of British bank first direct, who sets aside time every week to directly answer customers’ calls. He’s described this to me as being an opportunity to “crawl inside the head” of the customer and understand what actually matters to them. Another example, is at Octopus Energy in the UK. If you are an executive at the company, you spend time on the phones managing the calls directly – no filtering, but live as they come in.

This decision to dedicate time in his busy schedule to frontline work not only helps leaders connect with end users but also sets an example to all customer serving colleagues that their work is important and core to the brand’s identity, purpose, and success.

Leaders empower their teams

Ultimately, leaders alone can’t be responsible for every individual customer interaction and experience. Building a company grounded in service excellence requires trusting in, investing in, training, and empowering teams to do the right thing.

In a conversation with Sir John Timpson, he spoke to me about Timpson’s upside down approach to leadership – inspired by retailer Nordstrom – which places the customer at the very top, and frontline employees just below. The CEO and board sit at the bottom of the inverse pyramid. They have the job of supporting those at the top to deliver the best outcomes for customers.

In practice, this means a leader’s role is to trust, inspire, and educate frontline workers, giving them the ability and freedom to use their initiative rather than putting in place rigid structures that remove the all-important human touch from service.

Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts links employee engagement, fair pay, training, and responsive feedback mechanisms directly to customer satisfaction. These benefits help to foster confident and happy staff who are invested in the organization they represent and service they provide.

Our research at the Institute of Customer Service backs this up. It shows show that 54% of employees think their organisation’s best route to improving customer service is a focus on motivating and engaging its people.

Key takeaway: Customer-centric leadership means strong ROI

All indicators point to a clear link between consistently high levels of customer service and the bottom line. Simply put, putting the customer at the heart of your organisation (or the top of your inverse pyramid) makes business sense.

Many of the leaders I speak with are setting a gold standard, showcasing genuine care and clear accountability at board level, and empowering their staff to follow their lead – in a way that feels personal to them.

They instill a deep culture of service with a clear purpose and sense of direction, which guides decision making – both strategic and operational – across the organisation, setting it on the right path to deliver for both colleagues and customers, and drive sustainable growth.

What leaders must now all do in an increasingly complex world is keep demonstrating that ROI and follow three simple rules – focus on purpose, understand why what we do is relevant and, finally, be cognizant of the impact we are looking to create.