I’m working on a Customer Service program for a new client. The goal of the training presentation is making their clients feel like they are being treated with consideration, dignity and respect. Not an outrageous expectation to be sure, but this client has some challenges with it—that’s why they hired me!
There are three things a prospect, customer or client needs to hear in order to feel they’re being treated with consideration, dignity and respect. Here they are:
1. Their name
Dale Carnegie said it best in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Making a concentrated effort to get and use someones name early in the conversation is critical.
2. Welcome
I travel quite a bit and I have a 5 dollar rule. When checking into a hotel (60 plus this year and counting) I will give a 5 dollar tip to the first person who says this word to me. Now you would expect in the hotel business this would be pretty easy. After all —hotels are in the “Hospitality Industry”. This year, with over 60 hotel check ins, I gave out 15 bucks! Three times out of 60 plus opportunities. Two of which were at economical hotels and one, the best one, at a the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle. When I pulled up to the hotel the cab driver popped the trunk open, the bellmen grabbed my suitcase then opened the door for me and said “Welcome to the Four Seasons Mr. Lent”. Pretty impressive, and simple, he read the name on my luggage tag.
The most memorable “Welcome” I’ve ever received when traveling? It came from a US customs agent at the Vancouver Airport. I had a really long day— hassled with TSA and airline delays. I passed through the customs check point, got the ‘okay’ to proceed, and when I officially entered the US and handed my declarations form to the Agent, he looked at it, then looked me in the eye and said “Welcome home Mr. Lent”. Why is it a customs agent can welcome me home, but the person at the front desk of a hotel can’t do any better than ask if I’m “Checking in”? I mean really!?! They just watched me drag my luggage through the lobby. What the hell else would I be doing?
So easy to do, and so often missed. Take a few extra seconds and genuinely welcome your prospect, customer or client to your business. Welcome them like it matters…because it does!
3. Thank You
Our parents taught us this. We do it mostly out of habit now. We say it all of the time “Thanks”, “Thanks for this”, or “Thanks for that”. Because we do it with such abandon it seems to have little or no impact anymore. Thank your clients. Thank them in a genuine and specific manner. Thank them for their business, for their time, for the opportunity, for their interest or their continued support. Thank them frequently and genuinely. Thank them in unique ways. Thank them in writing, and not just in email, when you can.
I suppose you could still give good customer service and miss one, two or all three of these things, but why would you?
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