呼叫中心式的客户服务已经成为一种相当成熟的规范，但通常体现在缩短通话时间方面。客服代表表面上都非常友好，但他们的任务就是让客户尽快结束通话。美国运通公司（American Express）的客户服务以前也是如此，但自从吉姆•布什2005年开始负责客服业务之后，发生了一些变化。吉姆•布什认为，打破行业惯例，将结构化的对话改变为更为人性化的服务将会获得良好的效果。很多公司如今衡量客服代表业绩时，采纳的标准依然主要是他们完成通话的时间。然而吉姆•布什采用的衡量指标则是由贝恩咨询公司（Bain）的弗莱德•雷克海开发的净推荐值，该指标通过向客户询问“您可否将我们公司推荐给您的一位朋友？”来进行衡量。目前，在吉姆•布什的领导下，美国运通在这项指标上的得分已经有了显著提高。他说得很对，变革已经取得成效。客户消费增长了，而成本支出却降低了。

    现年54岁的吉姆曾经在新泽西州的瑞德大学（Rider University）主修会计学。作为美国运通公司的全球服务执行副总裁，他手下管理着大约2万名员工，约占公司全部员工数量的三分之一。他最近与记者杰夫•科尔文进行了会谈，涉及到公司如何改变服务人员培训模式、性格的力量、将电话客服转变为消费者的正向体验以及其他很多方面的话题。以下是采访剪辑：

问：在接手公司客服业务并开展大幅调整时，您进行了哪些重要变革？

    答：我认为，要充分利用每一次与客户互动的机会，将客服业务从公司的成本支出项转变为对客户关系建设的投资项。每一次互动都是一次用个性化服务影响客户的良机。我们原来的服务模式是以交易为重心，投资和培训都围绕着如何完成交易来进行，但后来我们将服务模式的重心转变为与客户建立关系。我们将机械的、照本宣科的模式转变为真正的交流，充满性格色彩并进行一对一的沟通，最终建立并维护好与客户之间的关系。

就是说如果客户给美国运通打电话，接听电话的客服人员面前只有一台电脑，但却并没有脚本，是这样的吗？

    没有脚本。我们把电话客服人员称为“客户关怀专员”，因为这才真正体现了他们的使命所在。我们会为这些员工提供信息。他们不是服务专员，而是对客户进行关怀的专业人士。我们会为他们提供客户的基本信息以及与特定问题相关的其他信息。这些能帮助客户关怀专员们熟悉客户情况，充分发挥自己的性格优势，适应客户的个性化需求。

    我们还对业绩评价模式做了调整。原来主要是通过打电话的时间长短来衡量工作效率，现在我们对效率的关注降低，让客户关怀专员从时间制约中解放出来。我们让客户自己来决定通话时间的长度。这种方式促进了企业价值的提升。我们的首要目标是服务客户，而不是完成交易。

    Call-center customer service has become a finely honed discipline, but usually it seems honed to cut time: The agent is superficially friendly, but nothing can derail that person's mission of getting you off the phone fast. Service at American Express (AXP) wasn't much different from that before Jim Bush was put in charge of it in 2005. His basic insight was that breaking with industry orthodoxy by transforming those conversations into less structured, more human engagements would pay off. Instead of evaluating service reps mainly by how quickly they got you off the phone, as many companies still do, he switched to the net promoter score developed by Bain's Fred Reichheld. It's based on one question: Would you recommend this company to a friend? AmEx's score has risen significantly under Bush's direction, and he was right -- it pays off. Customer spending is up, attrition is down.

    Bush, 54, majored in accounting at New Jersey's Rider University. As AmEx's executive VP of world service, he oversees some 20,000 employees, about a third of the company's total. He talked recently with Geoff Colvin about how the company has changed the way it trains service employees, the power of personality, turning collection calls into positive experiences, and much else. Edited excerpts:

Q: When you took over and overhauled customer service, what were the most important changes you made?

    A: I thought about the opportunity of capitalizing on every interaction and moving away from being a cost of doing business to being an investment in building relationships. Every one of those moments of truth is an opportunity to make a difference to customers in a personalized way. So we moved from being transaction-oriented -- the investment and training had been all around how to complete the transaction -- to building on the relationship with the customer. We converted from a robotic, scripted environment to a conversational environment that brings the personality to life and brings one-to-one connections, which is what ultimately builds and sustains relationships.

So when somebody calls American Express, the person on the other end has a computer screen in front of him but doesn't have a script?

    No scripts. Information is presented to the care professional -- we call them "customer care professionals" because that's what they are. They're not service professionals; they take care of customers. We present the profile of who that customer is and other information relevant to that particular interaction. That allows the care professional to be conversant and pull out their personality and match it to the personal needs of the customer.

    We've also modified how we measure performance. We got less focused on productivity as measured by how much time you're on the phone and freed up our care professionals. We let the customer determine how much time they want to engage. That engagement drives value. We serve customers, not transactions.