Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

What does this “care” mean and how does it connect to the phenomenon of service?

Especially in these times when we’re dealing with health issues and economic issues and climate issues, people are talking about care as much as they were talking about service in years past. So what holds them together?

It’s the heart of commitment to well-being that shows up in providing service and in authentic care. Let’s take these a little deeper. Service is the action that you take. It could be face to face and over the counter. It could be over the phone.It could be through a chat. It could be through the design of an interactive website It could be through email. But it’s action that creates value for someone.Action that creates value contributes to their well-being. 

Now, I want you to notice something.In the past, we used to say “The customer is king”, which implies that the service provider was someone subservient. No, no, no.In my definition, we’re saying that the service provider is the creator of value, and that is the most precious role of all. 

Now, sometimes that value can be quantified. For example, you help me save money. You help me make money. You help me get more value for my money or you save time. You enable me to do something quickly and easily and conveniently. Sometimes the value is more emotional. Oh, you made me happy.” Or “You resolved my worry.” 

Sometimes the value is more relational. “Thank you.I now feel understood or respected” or “more connected because of the way you took care of me.”And sometimes the value is even at the scale of life.“The way you and I have been working together here makes me feel like my life has more meaning.Thank you so much.”

Service is taking action to create value that contributes to someone’s well-being.

What about care? Well, care is concerned like, “Oh, I care about you”, but that’s not enough.So it’s concern and commitment to someone’s well-being. Aha! How do you put that into action? How do you take good care? Well, then you’ve got to do the service side that connects to care. You see how these work?

By the way, there’s another big change here in the meaning of the word care.You may not know that it comes from the German word “Karo”. Old German, which meant to grieve or to worry because when the word was first created, if someone was old or sick or wounded, they were probably going to die, so if you cared about them, what you were going to do is grieve and worry. 

Uh-uh. Today, what do we mean by care?]I am committed to encouraging you, enabling you, educating you, empowering you so that you can create more value for other people and take good care. You can help make the well-being of customers stronger so they’re more loyal to you. And they say, “I got a better experience from your service.Thank you so much.”You can take the action necessary for your friends and family members so that their well-being is also enhanced.

For your colleagues, for your community, for the future that all of us share.And let’s remember, for yourself. 

Self-care during these times is incredibly important not just to think about it, but to demonstrate your commitment to your own well-being by taking the actions that you know will support you. So that does mean sleep. It means exercise.It means eating well.Well-Being of you. So you can take care of other people.