Why smiling is important in customer service

“I am a service-provider.”

Was my answer when asked at a retail conference, if I was a “distributor or retailer”. Working in distribution and retail in my whole professional life, I consider myself a service-provider.

My self- definition as a service-provider is linked to my attitude and philosophy in my job. I want to fulfill customers’ needs that are greater than my product offerings.

Some banks, food & beverage, retail and other industries are also in the service-industry, but they think like a “product-distributor”. We talk about market-shares, competition, prices, location when we should be talking about “service parameters” like happiness, smiles, feel-good-service and dialogue.

Does it matter to you to feel good? Does a smile matter to you?

It matters to me. I gladly walk across town in my shirt and tie to a fabulous café that serves coffee (that’s worthy of Gods) to get my genuine smile, my little personal comment. Most at all, to make me feel like a unique individual, a human. Would you like to be treated as human?

How do you scale such an experience? Apply human qualities into your service-interactions as a crucial part of your customer experience eco-system.

Service is never random, but intentional designed!

Smile – make your employees happy, because happy people smile and smiles matter.

Diversity – forget the uniforms! Hire different races, genders, age groups, (our clients are all unique, why aren’t our employees?)

Dialogue – empower employees to engage in a dialogue with customers. (Don’t just broadcast the company cool aid, have a dialogue with customers instead).

Character – have them bring their personality to work. Let’s have an attitude, a character, a personality, an individual relation to our customers.

Customers are our live-hood! Be service-oriented instead of being product-oriented. Create smiles and personalities that only humans can provide.

Do you really have to turn your customer experience strategy into a fuzzy fairy-tale?

YES, let’s focus on the parameters we will win, as human beings. Today, our customers, compare the products online, try them in your stores and buy them on eBay. Let’s adapt. OUR CUSTOMERS ALREADY HAVE.