The lost art of customer service

Do you remember the days when gas station attendants used to not only fill up your car with gas, but check your oil, wash your widows and do just about anything else you needed them to do with a smile and a sir?

I don’t, but I am told that kind of thing happened all the time. Now, we are lucky if we get so much as eye contact from a grumpy cashier IF we decide to go in to pay for the gas WE had to pump ourselves, while maybe wiping our own windows and stuffing the overflowing garbage can with the trash from our car.

Or, calling a service support line and having to wait on hold for an hour for someone who doesn’t want to take your call only to have them grudgingly put you on hold for another hour so you can talk to someone who is reading the answer to your question from the first Google search that pops up on their screen, which you could have done yourself in half the time.

Let’s face it, the world of customer service has been in a terrible free fall since I don’t know when, but I for one am in favor of  trying to bring a little of the “service with a smile” concept back to business and have found it to be as easy as, well, smiling.

Okay, so there is a little more to it than that, but it all starts with the smile. People who deal with customers on a daily basis sometimes forget that while they are just another face to them, the person they are serving is exactly that, a person. They have feelings and needs and their problem, while routine for you, is the most important thing on their schedule for the day and its solution could be the difference between a good day or a terrible one. Besides, that smile could diffuse a potentially volatile situation before it starts.

There is an old saying and while corny as all get out, it is still one with more than a grain of truth, it says, “smiling is free.” Indeed smiling is free and it’s effects are amazing if you just give it a try. It is also one of the best business decisions you will ever make in your life.

You are far more likely to get return customers as well as better word of mouth advertising from those return customers if you just treat everyone like they are the most important people on the face of the earth.

Because if you think about it, if they are the ones making it possible for you to pay your bills, eat, and enjoy the life you have….they really are the most important people in the world.

So stop and think before you pick up that phone, or greet another person with a condescending “I don’t need you” tone, “how would I like to be treated if this were MY problem?”

That saying might be a bit cliche, but in the end, it’s also just plain old good customer service.