Gandhi on Customer Service

By Brian Critchfield

I love this sign I found over at Andy Sernovitz’s “Damn! I Wish I’d Thought of That!” blog. He saw it in the lobby of the Chicago Tribune:

We could all stand to think of our customers like Gandhi would. After all, this is coming from a man who was able to bring millions to his cause with no religious or political power. Maybe a little bit of Gandhi could rub off on my friend at the coffee shop!

4 thoughts on “Gandhi on Customer Service”

  1. No religious power? What are you talking about? You obviously know nothing about this man’s life at all. No political power? How would you found an Indian Congress in South Africa if you had no political power? Do you even know what political power is?

    It’s clear you are trying to praise Gandhi as a way of showing your pro-customer service message, but it would make some sense to think about what you are going to write before you write it. If the guy “brought millions to his cause,” it wasn’t through catchy sayings. It was through exercise of the thing you say he had none of: power.

  2. Stetson23, you obviously missed my point. I believe Gandhi was an extremely powerful man, but not because of title or position. He had inspirational power, which is much greater than coercive or utility power. Though he was involved in political parties and organizations, he was never a head of state or head of a single religion.

    I believe we are in violent agreement!

  3. Great sign, We all need to be reminded of this including myself sometimes. We get wraped up in the sale or the day to day grind and do not stop and think this is where our daily bread comes from.

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