During my lunch at a local restaurant yesterday, the waitress asked me three times, “Is everything fine?”
Yet, each time she posed the question, she was walking away from my table.
It was clear she didn’t care about my reply. In fact, she was almost out of sight each time I answered.
She was merely checking a box.
And checking boxes doesn’t produce memorable experiences, in a restaurant or any other kind of business. It won’t create loyalty or spread great word-of-mouth, either.
Doing only “what you’re supposed to do” will never surprise and delight a customer. And it won’t encourage your audience’s empathy. (Read how Minneapolis residents came to the rescue of a beloved local shop in May of 2020.)
Is a similar lack of sincere interest in your customers’ feedback showing up anywhere in your organization?
- Have you buried your company’s contact information deep within your website?
- Do you purposely keep callers on hold for long periods so they’ll hang up?
- Are you ignoring comments on your company’s social media pages?
- Have you avoided asking key customers for their input before developing a new service?
- Do you quickly email customers post-sale for their positive feedback even without expressing concern for their needs before the sale?
- Have you delayed training every member of your team on how to respond to customer complaints?
It’s important to always be asking some version of “is everything fine?” But it’s even more important to actively listen to each customer’s reply, then respond in a way that makes them glad they answered your question.
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