Moments of Truth

There are two letters from customers hanging on a wall of my cubicle. In each case I was praised for my efforts in helping them make sure they got a shipment so that they could keep production running. Both customer said nice things about me. One (a small food manufacturer) even that send me a box containing some of their products (yum!). Both have other things in common.

• Neither was one of my customers (part of my service area)
• I was not in a helpful mood
• I did not want to stay late to help and it was close to my time to leave

However, I treated them like they were my customers. I was courteous and helpful even though I did feel like it. I did what I had to do in order to help them get what they needed. These were moments of truth for me, tests to see if I really wanted to do customer service for a living. Fortunately, they went OK. Part of the reason they went OK is because I work on maintaining a proper attitude, have made myself knowledgable about my products and supply chain and most importantly.

Moments of truth do not wait until you feel like it, in work or in life. We need to do what we can to prepare ourselves in advance for those moments.