Smiling at customers

Smiling at customers - 05/05/05

I saw a young woman at the bank the other day, talking to a customer on the phone. She clearly was enjoying that interaction and valuing that customer - it just knocked me out. That customer could not see her radiant smile, but I’m sure they could feel it. At the call center where I had been working, they talked about “putting a smile in your voice”. One trainer even talked about putting a mirror in your cubicle and going for a physical smile.

I hesitated just now to call it a “real smile”, because I don’t think anyone was really proposing that. In fact, the expression I mostly saw from my colleagues (at least us newbies) was dogged determination. We were “saves” agents and our mission was to make “saves” – to take calls from folks who were calling to cancel their service with the company and to convince them to not do so. We were definitely on a mission and that mission got in the way of genuine smiles.

Are agents taking routine customer service calls more likely to smile? Maybe. Their work is certainly less stressful – they are not trying to do anything but to accomplish the customer’s requests. Saves work is more complicated: you are not simply accomplishing the customer’s request – you are actually looking for an opening to change their minds.

I am going back to that job, which I had left very discontented. I am convinced that the problem was that – in the middle of a pretty hard sales orientation, I lost my service slant. I believe that, if my mission is to accomplish the greatest good for the customer, I can have fun, smile more – and make lots of saves.

Lots of these folks have, at some point, had a good experience with our company. If I can – through customer service interventions, “master” technical support, and good old financial incentives – get them back to feeling good about the company, why is that not a win for them and us? They don’t need to try a new company, which is – as my dad used to say – a “pig in a poke”. I don’t know the exact translation for that, but I know it essentially meant that you don’t know what you’re getting, this next thing may be no better or maybe even worse. And it’s a lot of hassle to search and to get transferred over.

I want to serve people in ways that make me feel good, make them feel well cared for, and put a genuine smile on my face.