The essence of good Customer Service is simple: get people what they want in a reasonably quick manner. Keeping in mind that acting quickly, is often as essential as the product or service itself. Ironically, warmth in customer service, the way the customer is made to feel is not emphasized enough in most customer service training. The way they were made to feel is often the thing they remember most. More than the product or service itself.
The fact that they had a great time, got their questions answered, and loved the product or service is obviously key. With that, they’ll leave the call or your place of business in good spirits. But when you handle them warmly as well, when they sense you really “care”, it adds something for them. Warmth in customer service and care make them feel better…and accordingly they’ll want to share their experience and recommend your place of business and its staff.
What do I mean by “warmth”? I mean kindness and a strong interest in helping, seeing the customer as your friend with no need for defensiveness.
Care is not something you can “act”. A phony smile or false enthusiasm have nothing to do with care. The “catch phrases” you learned in your Customer Service training will only get you so far. After you tell your customer that you’re going to help them with their problem, you must care enough to actually help them fix the problem.
If you’re working in a cut-rate electronics store in Times Square, New York City, people are only there looking for bargains. So they won’t expect much in the way of attention, or notice a lack of warmth in customer service. Just give them speedy transactions. If you’re working in a waffle restaurant in the South and throw down a breakfast plate spilling hash browns onto the table, it’s not a big deal. People didn’t come in for the service.
On the other hand, if you’re dealing with a party mom throwing a birthday bash for her teenage daughter, you better care. You better realize that her daughter having a “great” time is more important at that moment to her than “peace in the world”.
Your care and warmth towards her and more importantly towards her daughter, tell the mom that she has a partner. Someone she can rely on to share some of her concerns. She needs that. Make it your mission that the mom has a “relaxed” and good time as well as her daughter and friends. Make that happen and she’ll rave about you and your place to every one of her friends…and she’ll be back again and again.
If you’re working in a doctor’s office, medical customer service better be excellent and caring.
Can you imagine a pre-op nurse without warmth? Or how you’d feel about your toddler’s daycare provider, if you sensed her customer service wasn’t genuine, that she didn’t really care?
***I firmly believe my son’s den leader in Cub Scouts should have his picture included in every customer service book as an example of patience and warmth in customer service. *** I’ll never forget him.
If you’re working in a call center or behind a counter, your interactions with customers tend to be brief. But they still notice the degree of attention and care you give them. When they see, even in a short moment, that you’re genuinely interested in helping them, it makes them feel better.
So…don’t be one of those Customer Service reps, who is just “going through the motions”, wishes you weren’t there, gets defensive easily and can’t wait for the shift to be over.
When your customers aren’t as polite as they should be, don’t use that as an excuse to care less…
Decide your customers are your friends. Treat them warmly as soon as you pick up the phone or see them approach you. That care might well cut through whatever else they’re experiencing. It may well make them stop in their tracks. It’s that powerful. You’ll see.
Rick Grassi
The Little Customer Service Book
A Common Sense Guide to Helping People
Recommended Links:
https://thelittlecustomerservicebook.com/2023/05/21/a-tale-of-customer-service-in-two-cities/
