Customer Service

‘Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve.’ Martin Luther King Jr.

In terms of service to human kind, few of us will ever change the course of history to the degree done by Martin Luther King. Still, this great leader’s words are a reminder that we can, indeed, all be of service to our country, clan, colleagues and customers.

Historically, in Western society, customer service jobs have been regarded as menial tasks. One worked in the service sector, waiting tables or pumping petrol, until they found a ‘real’ job.

Such roles had mistakenly been considered only as a means to an end, rather than worthwhile career paths in their own right.

The dictionary contains two quite different meanings of the word ’service’. One is ‘the attendance of an inferior upon a superior‘. This implies subservience, and few of us wish to be, or be seen to be, as subservient to anyone! Thus, we rightly reject that notion of service.

But, another definition states that service is ‘the act of being useful.’

And, surely we all want to be useful on this planet!