There was an article by Mitch Joel this week, opening with tongue-in-cheek/cynical “it’s all about me, me, me”, talking about Social Media. Christopher Penn answered with some Ninja-tips on how to beat “Social Media Narcissism, most prominently a quote from the movie Batman:
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me.” – Batman (2005)
Lorraine Baines (not yet McFly) would argue, “that’s good advice”. You see, when your mother teaches you that you are responsible for your actions it used to mean, because the people around you would hold you responsible. In these days it means, everybody – and what interests/concerns us the most – including our clients, will hold us responsible for our actions through the power of the web. And, rightfully so.
Two examples:
1. Heather told her story on dooce.com about how many ways washing machine manufacturer Maytag’s customer service found ways to disappoint her. Seth Godin always calls us out to be remarkable – well, aside from being highly entertaining Heather’s story shows how remarkably stupid Maytag’s customer service is set up. Luckily German trade law would have prevented such an episode through customer-friendly return-policy laws, but I can imagine my wife in that situation and compared to that I am willing to congratulate Heather on her patience. I myself would have been back at the shop after a week.
What I do defines me… congratulations Maytag.
2. I ordered three books on amazon.com, selecting to “group items as they are available” for shipping. Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush it” is still pre-order stage, but Mitch Joel’s “Six Pixels of Separation” and Chris Brogan/Julian Smith’s “Trust Agents” ship immediately, so I thought the latter two would come in one package. However, I received separate shipping confirmations for them, including extra shipping fees. I was taken aback but it took just two emails to amazon’s customer service to get things sorted out and I am getting a refund for one shipping charge.
What I do defines me… congratulations amazon.
There is an important lecture in Tim Ferris’s book “The 4-hour work-week“: In order to minimize decisions he has to make he gave more responsibility to his employers. He even did test-runs as to how high (value-wise) this should go. More responsibility at the customer service agent level means: quicker decisions and better customer service. You might say this is a win-win situation. Or you might choose to rather not talk to the customer. Your decision.
It’s what you do that defines you.