You have heard it all before - to provide good customer service and make a sale, you need to understand needs, have good product knowledge, find the "fit," and so on.  All true, but it's no longer popular to be stiff and calculated in how you serve and sell.  You need to be MEMORABLE.  So what happens when you take those skills and throw in personality, fun, and genuine rapport and care when connecting with your customers?  I will tell you what you get- better relationships, increased loyalty, and more sales.  

Let me prove this to you. My family and I are getting ready to move, and one super fun task I have (insert sarcasm here) is getting quotes from movers.  So I am going to share two moving company experiences from the last couple of days, and I want you to pick which one you would choose to do business with. 

A little bit in customer service can go a very long way. Trust me- nowadays customers' expectations are not very high (sad, but true), and it's so easy to turn a standard interaction into one that is memorable.  As Nelson Boswell said, "Always give people more than they expect to get."  Why?  It's simple: one wow could be worth more than $10,000 in advertising. Now the examples and tips I am about to share with you are tailored to hotels, but think of these concepts in a grander scheme and how you could generally apply similar efforts into your business.  So here are our "Little 'Wows' Can Go a Long Way" for front desk agents and sales & catering managers...

I get it. You are busy and have too much on your plate, and you have a hard time juggling all of your priorities. I am in the same boat, and I often get distracted by the thought of completing something rather than just going ahead and completing it. Especially lately, it's been even more important for me to tackle something immediately rather than to put off the task until later. The relief this gives to my brain, and the accomplishment of getting more done quickly, has been very beneficial.  But I am still working on this because my list of "to do's" keeps piling up, and the longer I wait to do something, the more challenging it seems, as is said in the below quote. So how do we accomplish more and procrastinate less?

Everything's better when you can smile and laugh. So why not incorporate this cheer and humor into your customer service and sales efforts?  And as Victor Borge said:

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." 

We want to connect with our customers, and when we do, there will be so much for you to be happy about, especially your bottom-line.  Additional benefits of adding humor to your customer service and sales conversations:

Selling suicide: to take inbound calls from inquiring prospects and to not have a structured plan for how to guide the call.  Never fear because we have a cheat sheet for you which is a very basic guide for you to build upon.  And guess what?  Much of what is on this free resource can work for outbound calls too!  The added structure to your calls will boost your confidence and gain you more qualified leads and most importantly, MORE SALES. You are welcome. 

Albert Einstein has many famous quotes, but this quote said by the "mad scientist" is one of my favorites since it is applicable in both our personal and professional lives:

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." 

This concept is well, so simple, and should give you pause to consider how exactly it can be applied to your business, specifically your customer service practices.  Generally speaking, here are thoughts and ideas for you to consider and implement...