Karma and Customer Service

When I conduct my customer/client service programs for employees and managers who work in a customer service career, I divide the participants into small groups and ask them a question. “Why is it important that they provide outstanding service to their customers/clients?” After several minutes we reconvene into the large group and they share several different answers. Some of them include: it is great public relations, satisfied clients will tell their friends, it encourages clients to come back, and it makes it a more fun place to work.

However the best answer I get is that it is just plain, good “karma.” The word karma means different things to different people. Some individuals who have a job in customer service really don’t understand the word, and pass the concept off as being ungrounded. American Heritage dictionary defines the word karma as: “1. the effect of a person’s action during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. 2. Fate destiny. 3. A distinctive aura or feeling. Since most people who want to work in a customer service job want to work where good things happen to them, karma is an important ingredient.

Earl Nightingale, one of the greatest successful philosophers of the 20th century, referred to it as “the Golden Boomerang theory.” What he meant is that what you send out in life comes back to you. He went on to explain that when you do a good deed for one person it will come back to you. Not necessarily will this good deed be done for you from the same person you did a good deed for, but, it can come from someone else. And many times that is exactly what happens.

I remember a few years ago I ran into my former guitar teacher. I had not seen him for over ten years and was glad to be reconnected with him. He explained to me that he had started his own guitar studio and was working to develop it into a thriving business. He asked if I could help with that process, but explained he did not have enough money to pay me. I explained to him I would be happy to coach him just as a personal favor. He said he felt obligated to pay me at some time in the future. I assured him I did not want any money and that when I helped someone I usually received help from someone else in return. He thanked me and I began coaching him on a regular basis.

About a year later I connected with a business coach in California and he offered to help me with my business for free. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, I guess this karma concept really does work.” I graciously accepted and he has been helping me ever since. Here is my point. When we do good for others it seems to always come back. Try it and see for yourself.

Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author.