Necessary Roughness

One of the smallest books I have read in some time is QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller. I got this corporate culture/customer service book as a “present” from my boss.

Miller distributes his 115 pages among 36 nearly independent chapters, creating an almost devotional feel. One could take a chapter or more a day as his or her thing-to-work-on. The book seems geared toward those with short attention spans.

The author’s premise is to use certain questions to avoid complaining about what one cannot and determine what one can do to alleviate a situation. Some questions, such as “Who…” and “Why…” tend to divert responsibility away from oneself, while other questions that begin with “What…” or “How…” lead to actions to be taken. Miller provides plenty of examples to advance his point. Not worrying about the stuff one can’t control leads to less stress and better service. Now that I’ve given away one of the big secrets to QBQ, you may likely suffice getting the rest by browsing the book at a larger bookseller.

It’s a natural tendency for me at least to get annoyed when I read customer service literature or participate in customer service workshops. It’s easy to recall how I could have received better customer service from the fast-food drive-thru, the rental car agent, or the doctor’s secretary. It’s harder to remember when I could have done better, either perhaps because of selective memory or because active service is simply part of the job.

Was my boss trying to tell me something when he gave me this book? Is the advice worth any more or less because it came from my boss? I could give answers to these questions, but that would divert my attention from my own personal accountability, wouldn’t it? It seems the veracity of Miller’s method is to be proved daily; I suppose it worked in this paragraph.