We've all had this happen.  You show up to a store, ready to make a purchase that thrills you, and within moments of arrival, all of that great energy you had gets sucked right out of you.  What happened?  More than likely, you walked into an environment that had negativity and unhappiness hovering, and the associate(s) you encountered had bad energy spewing from their pores.  (We can likely assume that these associates are unhappy with their jobs and don't have the tools/training they need to do their jobs well so they feel good.)  This negativity wildfire nearly engrosses you, and that excitement you had about your purchase is depleted.  Think about all that could be done differently by the company/associates in this situation.  Now, take a look at a very funny (very bad!) customer service exchange that takes place during Meet the Parents when Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is attempting to board a flight.

We have all heard the saying, “Customer Service isn't a department, it's an attitude." When you treat this concept as a business discipline, the customer experience will lead to profits. So if you believe in the business benefits of the customer experience leading to profits, then what are the best methods for achieving this? The mistake made by many is thinking that just because the company slogan says "we focus on the customer" or initiatives are in place that communicate to the staff to be warm and fuzzy with the customer, those methods will somehow be enough. Many companies "think" they know what the customers want, but the companies who "know" what they want are the companies that will lead the customer experience to a level that matters both in customer loyalty and profits.
(Image and concept adapted from Success Academy.)

Mistakes are to be expected, but knowing how to recover an angry or frustrated customer into a loyal customer is a learned art. A Customer Focused Attitude is critical for successful service recovery. Employees need to be trained to anticipate and identify potential problems, as well as have the experience to make decisions and to deliver skillful solutions to customer problems. 

All customer problems are opportunities to win over their loyalty. This weekend I was in a large home improvement store looking for a certain product. When I went to checkout, I asked the associate who was scanning my purchases if they carried this particular product. There were two additional associates standing around as I asked my question. Two of the associates told me what isle to look on to see "if" they had the product at all. I then asked if they could look in their system and verify whether or not the store carried this item. The same two associates quickly said no, they couldn't do that, and I would need to go look down the isle. The 3rd associate interrupted them both and said that she could check the system and let me know if they had the product. She left the register, took both of the associates with her, looked up the product and came back to me and told me they did not carry what I was looking for. She apologized and thanked me for waiting. I sure hope the two associates with her learned something about customer focused service. Attention and awareness can eliminate most issues. 

“Customer Service is not a department…it’s an attitude.”  How true is this phrase? As much as we try to complicate what great service is…it can be pretty simple. Customer Love, by Mac Anderson, is a great book that highlights unforgettable true stories about individuals and companies who have created extraordinary service experiences for their customers. WOW's! Companies like Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and others. What makes this little book so good is that the stories collectively inspire and remind us of what great service can look like and that it doesn't have to be complicated. 

Great service organizations know how to read their customers and respond.  Businesses who lose site or misunderstand who their customers are and what they want, or what matters most to them, are at risk.  It's the little misses that really weigh on me. For example,my husband and I were recently at a well-known home improvement store purchasing bags of mulch, 22 to be exact, and some plants.  As my husband was paying for our purchases, he asked if someone could load the mulch in our car.  The cashier said she would call for someone while my husband went and pulled the car around. As I was leaving, I didn't see the large rolls of plastic to line the back of our car, so I asked the cashier about it.  She scrambled around looking and finally told me that I would need to go to the front of the store to get the plastic.  I think we all know that the distance between lawn and garden and the front of the store isn't exactly close.  At this point, the car had been pulled up for the "someone" to load our car.  "Someone" casually strolled over to our car as I finished loading the last 3 bags of mulch into the car.  Big service misses here, don't you think?

From the lyrics of Carly Simon's song, Anticipation.... "is keeping me waiting."   Waiting and wondering are two very dangerous words in customer service, and yet I experience both, often.  How many times have you been in a store, hotel, restaurant, or doctor's office standing in line, where clearly the person behind the counter sees you, but does not acknowledge you?  They can look right at you, but choose to say nothing, and somehow they are comfortable with letting you stand and wait.  Is this a training issue, or an acceptable business practice for some businesses, or are some people wired in such a way that they don't understand or can't anticipate the effects of this on a consumer?

"We wildly underestimate the power of the tiniest personal touch."  -Tom Peters