Tennis and Customer Service
It's Sunday night and I already feel that we have had a successful weekend. Yoav and I played tennis yesterday and today, both times for over an hour. We really push ourselves to play hard against each other, with some impressive corner shots on each side. We are competitive enough to try and one-up each other, but gracious enough to acknowledge the other person's good shots against us.
I think these two qualities are both important and inseparable in life in general. We should be competitive (think "self-confident") in whatever we do, but at the same time realize that there will always be others who know more - and we need to acknowledge their skills in a humble way, by learning from them.
There are few things in life that are as beautiful as the ability to learn from others, whether they know it or not, whether we know it or not.
Take for example the year I spent working for my father when I was 22. As a recent graduate with a liberal arts degree (read "unmarketable") I was anxious to find a good job and start building a career. I worked with my father to make some money in the meantime. What I did not realize was that this office experience would shape my business ethics and morales in a significant way. Working with a man I still consider to be the smartest businessman out there would teach me how to interact with clients for years to come. His ability to remain cool and collected, even when badgered by impertinent patients who thought they know more than him, forever instilled in me an ability to take a deep breath and smile when responding to an issue at work, a quality that has since been dubbed "diplomatic" by my colleagues. His practical and realistic approach to his field led to the ability to cut to the chase of every argument, yet his friendliness and witty sense of humor made it a pleasurable chase for everyone involved.
He was not the only one. His financial assistant and my best friend at the office was also deeply influential in shaping the way I look at the concept of "customer service". She single-handedly raised the bar of expected customer service skills to a level that no other office, certainly no other medical office, has ever been able to match. From looking at the schedule beforehand in order to personally greet a patient by name to working with them one-on-one to create a payment plan for their treatment taught me more than any MBA course could possibly have done.
In short, when it comes to life, we are forever like children among adults, soaking in the lessons of those around us like grammar and vocabulary to a child who has not yet learned how to speak, because we are forever around others who know more than us about something.
That is the beauty of life, and that is why our "language" skills are forever improving.
Forever forward. Amen.
I think these two qualities are both important and inseparable in life in general. We should be competitive (think "self-confident") in whatever we do, but at the same time realize that there will always be others who know more - and we need to acknowledge their skills in a humble way, by learning from them.
There are few things in life that are as beautiful as the ability to learn from others, whether they know it or not, whether we know it or not.
Take for example the year I spent working for my father when I was 22. As a recent graduate with a liberal arts degree (read "unmarketable") I was anxious to find a good job and start building a career. I worked with my father to make some money in the meantime. What I did not realize was that this office experience would shape my business ethics and morales in a significant way. Working with a man I still consider to be the smartest businessman out there would teach me how to interact with clients for years to come. His ability to remain cool and collected, even when badgered by impertinent patients who thought they know more than him, forever instilled in me an ability to take a deep breath and smile when responding to an issue at work, a quality that has since been dubbed "diplomatic" by my colleagues. His practical and realistic approach to his field led to the ability to cut to the chase of every argument, yet his friendliness and witty sense of humor made it a pleasurable chase for everyone involved.
He was not the only one. His financial assistant and my best friend at the office was also deeply influential in shaping the way I look at the concept of "customer service". She single-handedly raised the bar of expected customer service skills to a level that no other office, certainly no other medical office, has ever been able to match. From looking at the schedule beforehand in order to personally greet a patient by name to working with them one-on-one to create a payment plan for their treatment taught me more than any MBA course could possibly have done.
In short, when it comes to life, we are forever like children among adults, soaking in the lessons of those around us like grammar and vocabulary to a child who has not yet learned how to speak, because we are forever around others who know more than us about something.
That is the beauty of life, and that is why our "language" skills are forever improving.
Forever forward. Amen.
posted by Allison at 10:32 PM
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