Treat employees the way you want them to treat customers

On any given day, as we interact with frontline employees be it within the organization we work, or as we conduct business with other establishments, we experience moments of truth where customer service agents create impressions that cause us to form an opinion of the agent, the organization and the brand they represent. From experience, the two more common moments of truth are moments of mediocrity, which is created when customer service agents provide minimum service – just enough to keep them employed and, moments of misery, which is created when the service provided is below the minimum requirement and the customer is left dissatisfied.

It is not often that we experience moments of magic. Moments of magic aren’t created when employees at times go above and beyond what is required of them. It is created when they consistently give just a little bit more than the average service.

The key is consistency. Today, I want to share an experience that left me feeling satisfied as a customer. If the Agent that served me is in the business of treating all customers the way I was treated, he’ll create moments of magic in all his interactions with customers.

On Wednesday July 19th I arrived at a branch of Bank of SVG in Kingstown, hopeful that I will receive my debit card that I was told a few days earlier needed to be changed and would be ready by Wednesday. I had driven several miles to get there, and cognizant that I would be travelling in a few days, I needed it as a backup.

As I got to the Customer Service Agents’ office, I heard one of them telling a customer that his card was not ready, to which the customer responded that he was told to come in for the card since last week and decided to give the bank an extra week. He was obviously dejected that he had to leave empty handed. The customer service agent dealing with me also told me that my card wasn’t ready but that it would be by Friday and asked whether that was okay with me. I said no, it wasn’t and went on to say that I drove several miles into town just to pick up the card that I was told would be ready today. He empathized and said that he would call the head office to find out if the card was already printed and if it was, he would walk over there and pick it up. He did just that, called head office enquired about my card, asked me to hold on for a few minutes, went over to head office and returned with my card.

I was impressed. As I sat there waiting for his return, I thought to myself, why can’t there be more employees like this young man. What would make him take up the telephone and enquire about my card even though as he said, the request forthe new card was only made a couple days prior, but another agent dealing with a customer who was waiting for two weeks would send him away empty handed without an enquiry? After I was served, I thanked him for making me a satisfied customer, he had a big smile on his face and I was on my way with a smirk on my face.

In an article titled ‘The Moment of Truth: Build Desirable Relationships with Users and Customers (The Moment of Truth: Build Desirable Relationships with Users and Customers | IxDF (interaction-design.org) The [author] said that moment of truth matters because of an increasingly crowded market place and that brands and products can only differentiate themselves on service. The author went on to say that if customers are delighted at every interaction with a brand or product, it is unlikely that they will quit the brand or the product. Instead, it is more likely that they will go on to becoming ambassadors of the brand or the product.

Recently, in prepping someone for an interview, I asked, ‘In your opinion, who is more important to a business, the internal customer or the external customer?’ The person responded, the external customer. However, I am of a different opinion.

You see, while businesses need external customers, their internal customers are responsible for keeping or repelling customers. Prices and offerings may attract customers to businesses, but people are responsible for keeping them loyal.

Therefore, treating employees the way we want them to treat customers can never be over started.

Visit us at www.searchlight.vc or https://www.facebook.com/Searchlight1.We’ll help you get noticed.