I walked into a convenience store and the lady behind the cash register didn’t look up from her phone. Even when I checked out, she was still on the phone talking to her sister about her children’s recent events and how pretty they were in the pictures she had sent.
- I apologize for imposing on your day to catch up with your sister. If you post the time on the door, I’ll work my schedule around so I can be here when you have time.
Eating at a restaurant the other day, the folks behind my table enjoyed texting and talking loudly on the phone during dinner. The lady had a colonoscopy and was sharing her experience with friends. They were going back and forth on whether or not they should post the pictures to Facebook or not using foul and descriptive language. The waitress chimed in a few times while she walked passed me and a couple with their children at another table.
- I apologize for sitting so close to you. I know that you are important and needed to take the four calls and then talk loud enough to make sure everyone hears you. Hearing the descriptive language about your colonoscopy during dinner wasn’t especially enjoyable, so I apologize for the other couple that we both glanced over a few times with a frown on our faces. The waitress did enjoy your pictures while others waited to be served.
Shopping at a retail-clothing store, my wife and I walked up to a group of employees to ask a question after several minutes of browsing through the store. Several seconds later, one of them asked if we needed any help with a snarly tone.
- I apologize for intruding on your day with your coworkers. Building a team in the business is important so this time to collaborate is important to do. All we wanted to do was to buy something that ultimately makes your paycheck.
For the last few months, my home Internet service seemed to come and go. I called the provider and started the journey to get to a live person so a solution could be created.
- After answering no that I don’t want to take a customer survey after the call and then answering the same questions about my account number and name four times, I was finally connected to a live person that I could barely understand. The person on the other end said that my Internet service showed up fine on his end and went on explain in tech language why the service was working. He said I should be patient because they have a lot of customers who are experiencing issues. I know it’s hard to provide a service like this to all the customers who pay their bills on time each month. It must be tough to deliver the service that you so genuinely promised to deliver when you called me asking for my business. The tech was supposed to arrive between 9:00 am and 5:00 PM. I called at 6:00 PM and they said he is running late, it will be before 7:30 PM. The tech showed up two days later. It took two more days to resolve the issue.
Our TV was pixelating even when the weather was good. I called the provider to determine a repair solution. Having been through similar experiences, I did all the troubleshooting before the call to speed up the process of getting to a solution.
- I was able to get to a live English speaking person within 6 minutes. The lady asked me to go through the trouble shooting with her. I explained what I had done, and she said that was great, thank you for doing that. She then wanted to test a few more things so together we went through two more steps. She said yes, I do have a problem, and she would schedule a tech to come out to the house. Their automated system kept me informed of the techs arrival time. Once he arrived he introduced himself, showed his badge and asked me questions about my service. He then did the repairs and wanted to know if he could help in any other way. He suggested another way to use the equipment that was kind of cool as he could tell I was a bit of a techie.
- Three days later a person from his company came by to inspect the work and ask how satisfied I was with the service.
Frankly, the TV service was outstanding. It stood out amongst many other providers of services, mainly because they did the little things well. To stand out today in the mind of the customer isn’t really all that difficult.
- Pay attention to your customer. Every interaction is a “moment of truth” that the customer makes an impression of how well you are servicing them.
- Do the things you said you were going to do, and if circumstances prevent that, talk to the customer ahead of time, not at the last hour.
- Treat people like how you like to be treated.
- Follow up on your work. Customers appreciate a true follow up.
It’s not that difficult to be viewed as providing great customer service today. Great service stands out amongst all the others.
