In the first week of April 2016, I was preparing a PowerPoint presentation that needs to be presented to my entire team during an annual conference. During the preparation, I was wondering how to explain the role of every individual working in a team in a most effective way so that they can remember & discharge the role in true sense in order to bring out their best. Suddenly the idea struck my mind which took me to Mahabharat story.
In the process, I reviewed all key characters & finally zeroed down to Sanjay, Krishna & Arjun. Let us see how these characters are having similarities with the employees working in customer care function.
Who was Sanjay ???
In Mahabharata, a story of a war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the blind king Dhritarashtra is the father of the principals of the Kaurava side. Sanjay is Dhritarashtra’s advisor. Sanjay, who has the gift of seeing events at a distance, narrates to Dhritarashtra the action in the climactic battle of Kurukshetra
Sanjay had the unpleasant duty of breaking the news of the death of Dhritarashtra’s hundred sons at the hands of Bhima at different points of time in the battle and offers the sorrowing king solace (give moral & emotional strength to) in his darkest hours.
All company representatives working in the market place & dealing with customers directly either in sales or service are like Sanjay. They are the eyes & ears of organization and need to share the ground reality & truth to their top bosses who are seating at the head office in an AC cabin & responsible for strategy and result.
Let’s see the role of Krishna
The orchestrator, the director & the man with the strategy & plan to win the battle. He was a mastermind who planned almost every bigshot’s death and made Pandavas win against great odds. He is a superhero with superpowers.
He is a strategist & catalyst, Mentor & leader to guide & handhold team to win the battle. Whatever the challenges come on the way, he tries to navigate the team effectively, optimize the available resources in order to win the GAME. He has molded Arjun to kill all Yodha’s who are fighting alongside Kauravas.
Therefore individual managers working in sales or service need to discharge the role of catalyst, mentor, planner, navigator & leader by leading from the front in order to win the GAME.
Let’s see the role of Arjun.
Arjun is the Man of Action. Krishna is the Man of Wisdom.
His role is that of the executioner. He has skills and talent but does not know against whom it should be used. He questions Krishna – is it okay to fight this war!? Krishna reveals his true nature tells him why is it okay. He is used by Krishna to implement his skills to restore dharma and win the war.
Arjun is Ideal Student, Super executor & Champion.
Similarly, in customer care, the managers must possess the skill of super executor, they must know how to execute the plan of Krishna efficiently & effectively in order to achieve the optimum outcome.
By seeing all these characters finally I concluded,
Yes, you are My Sanjay, My Krishna & My Arjun.
All my managers working in a team must play the role of all three characters in order to win customers and their hearts & minds…They are my HEROs….However, Krishna is the key…to win the battle.
Are you a leader like Krishna? Ask this question today?
Winning customers & retaining them with the Brand for lifetime should be the topmost GOAL of any customer-focused organization.