The most critical success factor to ensure great customer service is balancing attitude, process and technique. Companies that have strong customer service reputations have invested money and energy in these three areas of success.

Why are attitude, process and technique so critical to your customer service success? It is all about balance. Without a proper balance in these three areas, companies have missed the mark and driven business way.

There are many stories and examples offered by frustrated customers where these three success factors were weak. We can start with the airlines. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in process training with the emphasis on techniques to handle angry customers, complaints, etc. What is missing is the attitude of the employee who is speaking with the customer. When the employee has a bad attitude, process and technique are almost useless. An example of proper balance is Southwest Airlines. They start by screening their candidates based on a sense of attitude, an internal chemistry proven over time. If the candidate does not have the right attitude, the interview process stops.

What if the balance is geared toward a great attitude, but also includes anemic processes and techniques for handling customer service? In this lopsided scenario, employees with great attitudes can only take the customer's service request so far. With a great attitude and faulty processes for resolving customer issues, the customer is still left frustrated by the encounter with a broken process.

Attitude: In order to have a successful customer service team, it starts with the company's culture. From the top down, management has to buy into screening for attitude and raising the standard to include attitude. Attitude must come from the heart and from the head. Companies like South-west Airlines, Hyatt, and Hertz are consistent with communicating the right attitude and hiring people who have the right attitude "fit."

Process: This can be summed up as moments of truth. It has been said that intelligent people prepare for and plan for moments of truth. These are moments where problems and challenges come up and the employees are prepared to handle them with the right attitude and with the right process. Customer service success can be measured in the analysis and feedback toward moments of truth.

Technique: Successful companies that invest in customer service also invest in techniques to improve. Training sessions, books, tapes, seminars and customer surveys are all part of the solution. When the wrong technique is discovered, the attitude of the company should be to invest in the methods to improve. That complements the process and strengthens the attitude.

Sadly, most companies are just giving up and lowering, if not dropping, their standards for customer service. Customers are leaving in mass, only to find another like-minded replacement. When companies really get it and strive for improvement, the customer loyalty skyrockets—provided there is the proper balance of attitude, process and technique.