Recently I observed two flagrant acts of customer service and was surprised how little each person did, in my opinion, to be amazing. In both cases the service providers did what they did on the fly with no prompting or script. It came from the heart.
Free advertising. While listening to an afternoon drive radio show the other day, the host asked his producer, “who’s the sponsor of the PGA Tournament Report today?” Turns out there was none. The host, Jerry Bott, is actually the station’s program director and was filling in for the regular DJ. Being fast on his seat (bad pun, sorry) and looking out for his customers (advertisers) He spent about 30 seconds plugging Flemings Steak House, a new advertiser with the station.
Priceless goodwill. Can you even imagine being the person at Flemings who made the decision to buy the ad and how good you would feel? Not a paid ad but an endorsement from a guy with a reputation for eating good food and enjoying fine dining. How can you promote your customers with your audience? I know I’m looking for ways to do so.
Free smiles. I was headed to a grocery store that my wife and I avoid shopping at, for all but the shortest list and then only because it’s close to home. The prices are high and the staff is normally not too friendly or helpful. My checker on this particular evening was all smiles and happy. She went out of her way to ask if I’d found everything I was looking for. I was blown away. I left the store thinking, I’ll be paying attention the next few times to see if it’s an isolated employee or if maybe management style and hiring has finally changed.
Changed attitude. Smiling and asking if a customer’s needs have been met costs the store nothing. They, however, gain a customer leaving with a warm fuzzy feeling and in some cases even results in a blog post about the Pick’n Save in Sussex, Wisconsin.
It really is the small things you do to make a customer feel special.
I love hearing stories about great customer service Jim. So many people forget that this is an incredible way to stand out in a business landscape that screams “blah”!
The other thing we need to remember is that there are more venues than ever before in history to voice our opinions. Some of these opinions even have a way of going viral.
What an awesome time for all of us to kick our own customer service up a notch or 3!
Rock on Mr Raffel!
Respectfully,
Paul Castain
Jim, it’s so wonderful that you notice these small acts of kindness, or “flagrant acts of customer service.” When I receive great customer service, I always leave the store feeling satisfied. It’s good for business! I know I would rather shop at The Outpost, where employees are always smiling and asking if you need any help, rather than certain grocery stores (will not be named) where employees are rude or simply not paying any attention to their customers.
I guess I shouldn’t have used the word “flagrant.” 🙂
Jim – It is true its the little things that separate the men from the boys in regards to Customer Service. In almost every industry someone offers a similar product and or service to what you might be selling. Whats the incentive to chose one company over the other? To me its easy – the customer experience. Now days it is critical for companies to re-evaluate how they are treating their customers, as consumers are becoming more and more savvy with their purchases. Heck – its just as easy for me to make my purchases online now, where I wont have to worry about how a sales associate treated me. Now I am not saying companies have to re invent the wheel here – simply just get back to basics (like you discuss in your post). A simple smile or well thought out needs analysis to really uncover what product would work best for me is all it would take.
As you can tell, I am passionate about improving the customer experience in my industry – I am glad that there are people out there, such as yourself who notice these efforts.
Keep up the great posts Jim!
Sharif
I really think it’s less rude and more not paying attention. Perhaps its has something to do with a generation or two being raised by MTV and video games instead of by interacting more with their parents and friends? It’s probably not that simple.
Yes, I notice and I think even people who don’t think they are noticing notice.