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Never Underestimate The Power of Personal Service

Last Wednesday was one of those days it doesn’t pay to even think of getting out of bed, let alone actually get up. First, I got a 7:30 AM phone call from the home inspector I hired to check out a house my wife and I had fallen in love with and were getting ready to buy. He’d found a serious water leak that the seller hadn’t disclosed, which meant I’d have to call the seller and withdraw my offer unless he was willing to make the necessary repairs.

A few minutes later the driver behind me rear-ended my car as I was about to turn into the parking lot at my office. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but my car was damaged and I had to spend 40 minutes exchanging insurance information with the other driver and waiting for the police. The delay would make me late for an important meeting, and I found myself slipping into a very bad mood.

Then something happened that turned my day around. Marlene, who works as a waitress at the drive-through coffee shop next door brought coffee out for me and the other driver. Later, when I went to the drive up window to pay, she said, “It’s on the house this morning. I know your day started badly, but it’s going to get a lot better for you, and by the way, Mel, that’s a great tie you’re wearing!”

Just a few words and a simple act of kindness, but they transformed my day from bad to glad. As the day continued it really did get much better. When I finally got to my office, there was a message from the house seller, who apologized for the water leak problem and said he’d get it fixed right away. The other driver’s insurance company immediately took care of the repairs to my car. Though Marlene’s words didn’t change the outer events, they changed the way I felt about those events, which made a big positive difference in my day.

Where did you go today? At how many of the places that you went did you get real customer service from someone who actually spoke to you as an individual? If you’re like most of us, more often than not you use the ATM to deposit or cash a check at your bank, ring up and bag your own groceries at the supermarket’s self-serve checkout and give your lunch order to a bored-sounding order taker at the other end of a faceless speaker in the drive through lane of a fast food restaurant. You make these choices because banks, supermarkets and food establishments—in order to make more money with fewer employees—have made getting personal service more time-consuming and difficult than it used to be.

Businesses want customers to believe that automated service is quicker. But is it really quicker, or does the fact that we’re busy waiting on ourselves instead of being waited on by someone else make us believe that? The fact is that businesses want us to use automated service because it costs them less to provide.

As the number of in-person customer communications has dropped dramatically over the past few years, the power of the ones we continue to have has dramatically risen—which gives companies that offer personalized customer service a tremendous opportunity to grow their businesses by exerting a positive influence on their customers’ lives. Even when the orders come in over a loudspeaker, the opportunity is there to provide top quality, individualized customer service by using a friendly, caring voice.

Since the biggest difference between competitors is the quality of the customer service they provide, those businesses that provide excellent customer service will grow and prosper. Those that don’t, won’t.

We usually know nothing about whatever personal problems our customers are facing. But we should know that a kind word spoken at the right moment can turn a bad day into a good one. These moments of opportunity may last only about 10 seconds—but never underestimate the power they have to make a positive difference in your customers’ lives.

So never underestimate the power of personal customer service. Given indifferently, it’s a recipe for disaster. But when it’s given with genuine concern, it can turn another person’s day from bad to glad—and that’s powerful, indeed!

Mel Kleiman, CSP, is an internationally recognized consultant, author, and speaker on strategies for hiring and retaining the best hourly employees. He is the President of Humetrics, a leading developer of systems, training, processes, and tools for recruiting, selection, and retention of the best hourly workforce. Mel is also the author of four books, including the best selling “Hire Tough Manage Easy”. You can reach Mel at (800) 218-0930, mkleiman@humetrics.com, or www.humetrics.com.