I care! You should too! The old axiom “treat a customer well and they’ll tell 3 people, treat him badly and he’ll tell 10 people,” just gets multiplied by a hundred in this digital age. By the way, the 100 multiple, is the bad that people are passing on!
So today I want to enlist you to participate in a program to pass on the good. We’re going to stand up to the digital bad. How will we do that? Easy, and to some old school. I want you to recognize good service when you see it.
That’s right, I want you to voice your approval at the point of contact. What does that mean? If you experience good customer service, let it be known. Say something to the person delivering the excellent service, better yet, also say it to their manager. I know this may be a bit of a stretch for some of you; after all complimenting people is hard for most of us. But I guarantee not only will you brighten up another human being’s day, but you will feel good about yourself in the process.
Let me give you an example. I was recently at a local coffee house for an early morning meeting. I have been to this place a few times, but quite honestly just ordered, sat down and did my business. As I approached the counter the barrister says “good morning Mr. Going the usual green tea.”
I have to admit I was stunned for a good 5 seconds. I thought at any minute someone from Punked was going to jump out and embarrass me in front of millions, but then I thought what would Punked care about me. Anyway, I was stunned that she would remember me. I asked her how she knew my name and she said she made an effort to remember everyone’s name so that she could better recognize them when they came in.
Shocked, you bet, on a number of levels. One, she would take the time to do that and second, how did she do that. I have a hard time remembering people I met 10 seconds ago. But the real point is that she would make the effort, I was impressed. For those that are curious, she took the time to learn because she truly has the customer service gene and secondly, my name was on the debit card. Nonetheless, excellent customer service.
So here’s your template, your script. Once recovered I said “thank you for remembering me,” and secondly is your manager around.
I took the opportunity to tell him how wonderful his employee was and how I would make it a point to come back as often as I could.
-Employee gets a pat on the back and her excellent customer service gets validated.
-Manager gets to hear they have a valuable employee that they better acknowledge and reward.
Great customer service is rare, appreciate it, celebrate it and by all means make it public.
That’s your challenge. Share your experiences with the group and let us know how you celebrated excellent customer service!
FREE INCENTIVE IDEA
Here’s one that will really appeal to the millennials in your group, but certainly is near and dear to most of us. Let the winner of your incentive plan have a day or half day off to participate in some type of volunteer work. It could be picking up trash at the beach or volunteering an afternoon at the local homeless shelter. Whatever floats their boat.
As always, be sure to celebrate your winner in front of the group and in this case the volunteer work they will be doing. It would also be great to have the winner speak to the group upon completion of their volunteer day. Where did they volunteer, what did they do and how did they value the experience.
You’ll be surprised at how many people are doing great volunteer work outside of how you know them, but also how many others will begin to stand up and help others. A lot of companies these days are more socially conscience and you will be helping your organization lead the way.
Go For it!!!!
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