The essence of a service industry is the point of contact with the customer. From a yoga class or therapist to a decorator, a restaurant or a tour operator, we expect value to lie in the personal nature of the delivery. It lies not in product quality but in experience quality – in courtesy, humanity and kindness. We do not expect a difference between a first- and a second-class experience, between caring and not caring.
This quote is from a very good article I read this morning on the effects of targets on corporate culture.
And it got me thinking about the work that we do as Ethics & Compliance Officers.
Granted, we are not exactly in the service industry. But after our employees run into a problem related to our online training, our policies, or our controls, they come to us for help. They come to a person. They expect a human being.
(Just like passengers do on an overbooked aircraft)
And so we must remember: How we do things matters just as much as what we do.
The Ethical Leader 