Wow” Isn’t Always a Grand Production
Stories of wowing a customer via an over-the-top grand gesture (flying to a customer’s home halfway across the country to return lost jewelry, for example, as one famous story from Zappos goes), is a lovely way to spotlight employee initiative and care of customers.
But not all moments of wow need to be so over the top. A wow connection can also be achieved less theatrically through the use of the right words in conversation with a customer, words that make an emotional connection that transcends the transactional.
All it takes to wow my longtime customer, Mrs. Gold [not quite her real name], is to take the time to slow down an otherwise-transactional call in order to bond over her unique affinity for cats: “Mrs. Gold, we were just thinking about you here in the office: are you holding steady at 12 cats or are you [sotto voce] thinking of increasing your menagerie to 13?”
Mrs. Gold knows she’s a character, knows she’s unusual. And the fifteen seconds it takes for us to acknowledge this (plus, by and large, a few minutes to field her response) provides her a “wow of recognition” that we can give her, via these words or similar, any time she calls in.
Does YOUR company have a culture that promotes these moments of connection, these gestures that lead to “everyday wow”? If so, how’s it going? Do your customers appreciate it? Does it build morale for employees as well?
Micah Solomon
Author • Forbes Senior Contributor • Customer Service Consultant
President and CEO, Four Aces Inc.
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