Empathy, Collaboration, and Aikido: The Unique Pillars by Usa in Building Customer Operations
Who says it is impossible to please everyone? It is certainly not the Customer Operations team whose main goal is maintaining customer satisfaction. While it is not easy to stay in positive emotion for long, it is harder to maintain others’ expectations. However, it is not impossible to excel in this line of work; you just need to dig up some approaches to make it work.
Achmad Moesadad, often called Usa, is an expert in operations. He has more than 18 years of experience in the related field, especially in customer operations. He landed a job as a Customer Service Agent at DHL Express Indonesia. Since then, he has been in different companies and industries, leading GovTech Edu’s Customer Operations team.
Interestingly, Usa was previously offered to work with Govtech Edu for a different role, but time wasn’t on his side then. He finally joined the force in December 2021 as Chief of Staff for COO Organization. Later in August 2022, Usa was appointed as the Head of Customer Operations.
In Customer Operations, he said, “I have a highly challenging task to develop Unit Layanan Terpadu (ULT) in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (MoECRT) to deliver the best-in-class services.”
During his reign, Usa has restructured the Customer Operations team to support its goals. He also convinced the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology to strengthen its service capacity by 30% and implement the Customer Relationship Management System in Unit Layanan Terpadu (ULT) MoECRT.
Working in customer operations for the MoECRT offers opportunities for growth and learning. Although certain rules and administrative processes exist to comply with, they provide a structured environment that ensures consistent service delivery to the public.
One of Govtech Edu’s values is that we believe users are the center of all work. To adhere to that value, we also #PutUserFirst by prioritizing platform and system reliability to ensure a seamless user experience even when the unexpected happens.
Usa also mentioned that Customer Operations is a whole wide world. As the team helping our customers, we must know the end-to-end process. This job often brings us across several internal or external divisions.
“What makes me love this? It allows me to learn and know the end-to-end process and establish a broader network. Therefore, I can also see things from different perspectives. Although I’ll be involved in many projects, which can be overwhelming sometimes, but I enjoyed it most of the time,” Usa said.
One of the fundamental issues, Usa said, is to stay motivated and committed to his responsibility, including overcoming all challenges. “In my case, I need time to think and scribble on papers or a whiteboard, trying to map the situation and the next move. It is also important to have partners to brainstorm. It is called collaborative problem-solving. Instead of thinking alone, we could use a partner to find the answers together,” he added.
“Playing games and doing sports adds some flavor to keep me enjoying my job,” he said.
As a Customer Operation, Usa considers everyone as a customer or partner to achieve the same goal. He felt it necessary to understand the whole context before responding to their statements. This applies at home with his family. To overcome the issue, Usa will break down the situation, put it into perspective and decide on a solution together.
The Intersection of Aikido and Customer Operations
For over 20 years, Usa has been treasuring the Japanese traditional martial art, Aikido. He started in 2003, and he is now a 3rd Dan Aikido black belt. To date, he is also a practitioner and assistant instructor in one of the well-known Aikido institutions in Indonesia.
For Usa, Aikido’s values play a significant role in his way of thinking and the development of his career. For example, one of Aikido’s principles is to unite the heart, mind, and physical body in the same focus. When we have one specific goal, our body unconsciously works to achieve that. It makes us stronger to get through it. In terms of work, we can be more focused and deliver further.
In another case, we must have been in the situation when it heated up, and we were ready to erupt. At that moment, we have options whether to confront or control the situation by overcoming ourselves, focusing on the goals, and facing it calmly. It is inspired by one of the terms in Aikido, “Masakatsu Agatsu’’ — which means true victory is victory over the self.
The Future of Customer Service: Coexistence of AI and Human Touch in Customer Service
To date, many AI-based solutions have been generated to simplify, even close to replacing, the customer service role. As Usa sees this, a chatbot has yet to replace the customer service role. It is proven helpful to the field in managing traffic or workload. “However, there is still room for improvement on the empathy side. The human touch and empathy are still essential in this area. Additionally, he added that AI-powered customer service can help the team provide more direct and personal interaction, which can add more value when servicing Customers,” he added.
Usa also mentioned several key traits to becoming a good Customer Operations Officer, including great communication skills, customer empathy, collaboration and teamwork, and negotiation technique. One thing that is also important as GovTech Edu works with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, is how to manage the stakeholders.
“It is about delivering customer satisfaction, understanding their position completely, and putting our hearts into what we do. We can see from a better perspective when we put our hearts into it. It is about helping others; when we put our heart into it, people will feel it,” Usa said.
