Sometimes, through no fault of your own, you find yourself overwhelmed by demanding customers who may feel entitled to immediate attention. Maybe a large tour group just arrived at your hotel or restaurant, or you’re short-staffed due to job vacancies, call-offs, or lean scheduling, and a line is forming…

In these instances, even careful planning and preparation may not result in the seamless service you’d like to provide to all of your customers. But there are ways to achieve stellar service even when faced with long lines and impatient customers:

Acknowledge the customer. Make eye contact and nod. A customer may feel anxious if you don’t acknowledge his presence—especially if other customers are also waiting to be served. Many delicatessens and government offices alleviate this anxiety by issuing numbers and serving customers in order.

Smile—a lot! Customers can easily detect tension in your body language. When they do, it may make them feel anxious and uncomfortable. The well-known communications study by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, suggests that 55% of one’s likeability comes from the visual effect—her body language. Saying “I’ll be with you in just a minute” with a serious or critical expression on your face sends a far different message than if the same words were said through a smile.

Communicate early and often. Most customers will understand delays and other setbacks if there is adequate communication during the wait. Flight delays are a classic example of this. When there is adequate and reliable communication between the gate agents and passengers, then passengers can make use of the delay to work, shop, dine, etc. It’s when the communication is inadequate that passengers become restless and upset because they’re unable to venture from the gate area for fear of the plane boarding without them.

Re-deploy and cross-utilize staff. Apple Stores do a great job with this. If you need help on the sales floor, reps are there. When you’re ready to buy, there’s no line to wait in because the same rep can complete the purchase transaction with his hand-held payment device. Is your product stocked in the backroom? Don’t worry about a lengthy wait in some line—he will retrieve it for you personally.

Entertain. Disney does a great job of entertaining its customers while they wait in long lines to experience a ride or other attraction. By having characters interact with the guests or providing overhead flat screen television sets designed to entertain, prepare, and/or engage the guest while awaiting the attraction, Disney effectively reduces the perceived wait time of its guests.

Freebies. I once waited in a long line at a Starbucks store in Virginia. When I finally received my latte, the barista also handed me a free drink coupon. It was a nice touch. Most often, when customers wait in long lines, they feel helpless and taken for granted. In this case, I felt appreciated that my wait had been recognized and deemed unacceptable by the staff.

While it’s impossible to anticipate every variable that contributes to an operation being “in the weeds,” there are times when planning is the difference between exceptional and poor service quality. For instance, if you’re expecting a large group due to an earlier reservation then staff accordingly—even when this requires some creativity (e.g., reallocating staff from other departments or locations, utilizing temporary labor, etc.).

Maybe it’s not a staffing issue. Perhaps it’s a logistical issue. If so, anticipate the processes that you’ll need to address before the group arrives. In the hotel industry, that may be the arrival process (i.e., guest registration, baggage handling, etc.). A restaurant may suggest a prix fixe menu which will streamline the ordering process, resulting in more efficient table service during the event.

Most businesses benefit from receiving lots of customer traffic. When the traffic comes, whether anticipated or not, you must be prepared to address and serve your customers in ways that reflect the service priorities of your business.

Several years ago, I was out to dinner in Orlando with a colleague. At the time, she was the director of training at a large resort and convention hotel located near Disney World.

Her hotel competed for group business head to head with Disney’s own hotels. If you have experienced Disney, then you know how difficult it is for another hotel to win business when competing with them—especially if the deciding factor is the anticipated quality of service that group members will receive as hotel guests.

When I asked Theresa about her approach to customer service training, given her formidable competition on the other side of Interstate 4, she said that a key ingredient was to involve hotel employees in clarifying the difference between their job functions and the essence of their jobs.

Consider the definition of each term:

func⋅tion [fuhngk-shuhn]: –noun The action for which a person or thing is particularly fitted or employed.

es⋅sence [es-uhns]: –noun The most important ingredient; the crucial element.

Depending on the employee’s job role, the functions performed will differ. For instance, the functions of a bellman (e.g., deliver luggage to and from guest rooms, provide information about the hotel outlets and services, etc.) will differ from the functions of a maintenance employee (e.g., perform preventative maintenance, execute repairs, etc.).

Theresa explained that, while employees’ job functions will differ, the essence of their roles was the same: To exceed the expectations of their hotel guests by consistently delivering product and service quality that will result in delighted customers.

Bain and Company, a consumer research firm, equates delighted customers with a category of customers called promoters. Promoters are those customers who are the least price-sensitive, have the highest repurchase rates, and are responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of positive referrals to a company or brand.

Now, Theresa had defined the essence of her employees’ job roles based on their highest priority: exceptional product and service quality. Other organizations may define the essence of their employees’ job roles differently. For instance, my neighbor is the executive director of a halfway house that provides housing for men who are in transition from incarceration to freedom. He told me that the essence of his employees’ job roles is to convey respect towards the clients, his term for the men who occupy the facility.

The challenge for employers is that, oftentimes, employees think that the functions and essence of their job roles are the same. When this happens, employees become transactional and process-focused, treating each customer like the last customer. A factory mentality ensues. In the short-term it may be highly efficient (employees do more things faster) but in the long-term it is ineffective (does not fulfill the organization’s highest priority).

Consider your own organization. Do the employees really know the difference between their job functions and the essence of their jobs? If you’re not sure, just ask. My hunch is that you will be met with blank stares…

This becomes an opportunity for you to have a meaningful conversation with your employees about the difference between the tasks they are responsible for executing and your organization’s highest priority.

Patient: Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away?
Doctor: If you aim it well enough.

Throughout history, humor has been recognized for its healing qualities. The proverb proclaims what modern science has confirmed: “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.” Medieval professor of surgery, Henri de Mondeville, recommended mirth as an aid to recovery from surgery. More recently, a growing body of scientific evidence has reinforced the physiological, mental, emotional, and social advantages of humor.

Laughter has been called “inner jogging” because it stimulates the cardiovascular system, increases the oxygen throughout one’s bloodstream, exercises facial muscles, shoulders, diaphragm, and abdomen. A study by Stanford University showed a good belly laugh can give you health benefits equal to 10 minutes on a rowing machine. While laughter itself is delightfully stimulating, the residual effects create a temporary reduction in blood pressure, respiration, heart rate, and muscle tension.

Laughter enhances creativity and problem solving, reduces stress, eases strained relationships, and promotes mental health. It may even strengthen the immune system and contribute to longevity. In fact, University of Chicago studies show a great sense of humor can add an additional 8 years to your life!

Exercising your sense of humor doesn’t mean that you need to tell jokes all the time or be the life of the party. Just be open to the comic relief that daily life provides and cultivate the ability to not take yourself too seriously.

The French novelist, Colette, said, “Total absence of humor renders life impossible.” Being purposeful about using appropriate humor in the workplace not only affords employee morale and health benefits, it also makes customers’ experiences memorable—and that certainly beats the alternative!

Have you ever missed an opportunity to provide a compliment? Perhaps viewing it as optional? I have. And when I do, it’s usually my wife who points it out. Maybe I’ve overlooked her new haircut or the way she keeps a household of six on track. It’s easy to become complacent in this area and, instead of communicating appreciation, convey indifference or apathy.

We do the same with customers. One statistic I read suggested that 68 percent of customers quit doing business with a company due to perceived indifference towards them as customers.

The author Leo Buscaglia wrote, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

You may be thinking that “…have the potential to turn a life around” sounds a bit dramatic. If, for example, you work in the retail industry and miss an opportunity to compliment a customer on her choice of handbags, life goes on. But consider the field of healthcare and the positive effects that compliments have on patients.

Earlier today I was reading the book, Love Your Patients by Scott Louis Diering, M.D. and came across the following passage:

“One of the nicest gifts we can give anyone is a compliment. A compliment does not cost us anything, is easy to prepare, and shows our patients that we have taken the time to recognize them as special.

For example, when someone is in pain, it is nice to recognize their tolerance. We can say, “You must be very strong to tolerate that!” Or, “You are better than I am, I would be crying!” Or, “You could give lessons on how to manage pain!” Our compliments show our admiration for their pain tolerance.

We can compliment our patients for anything, but compliments about their own healthy behaviors are always good. For example, we can compliment them on their recall for their medical history, their blood sugar log, or their initiative to come in to see us.

Further, praising our patient’s healthy behaviors is a reinforcer for those behaviors. If we reinforce something, it is more likely to occur in the future. And, if we ignore their good behaviors, those good behaviors are less likely to occur again.”

Complimenting customers or patients will help to make the personal customer service you provide more memorable. But remember that co-workers are customers too. They deserve the same type of affirmation and recognition. For more on the topic of recognition, read this light-hearted post titled, Effective recognition is not pi in the sky!

So, while the opportunity to offer a sincere and specific compliment may not present itself during every customer service interaction, just be on the lookout for those opportunities to genuinely recognize the customers you serve.

They will feel better and so will you. As the author J.M. Barrie observed, “Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”

Twitter is the social networking service that has revolutionized the way people communicate online. Twitter allows twits (users) to send out tweets (messages) to their followers (those minions who opted to follow updates from the sender). These updates are limited to no more than 140 characters in length. Tweets can be sent via computer, cell phone, or handheld device.

Lately, Twitter has become known for its Fail Whale graphic (pictured) and accompanying message, “Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.”

Many disgruntled users vent their frustrations by sending terse missives such as: “Someone broke twitter again – that bloody fail whale needs a harpoon!” or “Dammit the dreaded Fail Whale is rearing it’s ugly head again…what’s going on people???” And these are the nice ones…

While I consider myself an advocate of the customer with a low tolerance for service failures, I’d make an exception in Twitter’s case. Here’s why:

Twitter is evolving. It was only launched in March 2006 and, after a period of incremental growth, its usage has grown dramatically. From February 2008 to February 2009 Twitter grew 1,382 percent and currently has more than 8 million unique users in the U.S. Facebook, by comparison, grew only 228 percent over the same period. Want to read more? Here’s the post by Adam Ostrow (@adamostrow in Twitterland).

Don’t get me wrong. I too am frustrated when I see the Fail Whale. That’s to be expected. I do recognize, however, that popularity is a double-edged sword: both attractive to many and, at the same time, crowded.

Twitter is extremely popular and has been thrust into the mainstream media recently with the competition between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN (@cnnbrk) to see who could be the first to attract one million followers on Twitter and Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) exposing Twitter to her 20 million viewers.

And it’s crowded. Just last week I read a Sprint advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that quoted these statistics: “29,997 people just twittered on Twitter for the first time today (and) 9,002 people just twittered on Twitter for the fifth time today”

There is a restaurant consultant on Twitter named Jeffrey Summers (@JeffreySummers). He makes his living by helping restaurateurs to fill the seats in their restaurants. Most of us have a favorite restaurant and, chances are, your favorite restaurant is attractive to many others as well. Because it’s popular, it’s crowded. Just like Twitter.

You wouldn’t throw your hands up in frustration in front of the hostess at your favorite restaurant and say, “Geesh! What’s it take to get a table in this wildly popular restaurant?” You would understand the reason for the wait and probably just get a drink at the bar and relax.

So the next time you see the Fail Whale, consider the restaurant analogy. Be grateful that you’re associated with Twitter’s emerging technology with its untold potential. Be thankful for the knowledge you’ve gained (perhaps from one of @guykawasaki’s Alltop links) or music you’ve received (maybe from @sharonhayes or @DJDaveM). And be appreciative of the many relationships that you have established, both personally and professionally.

Then, if you’re still frustrated, get a drink and relax. ; )

By Steve Curtin (@enthused)

I was reading the book Revolutionize Your Customer Experience by Colin Shaw and came across the following excerpt from Duane Francis, CEO, Mid-Columbia Medical Center, The Dalles, OR:

“We want to create a non-institutional environment where patients can feel more like individuals and valued as a whole human being, rather than just a diagnosis in bed three, or the injury in bed two, and being treated as a transaction. Therefore we have created an environment that is susceptible to healing. For example, we use a lot of water features in our facility. We have a waterfall in an open-air atrium: there is open-air access from all of the floors of our hospital, where you can hear the sound of cascading water. We also use salt-water aquariums because we know it creates a soothing and calming environment. We have fully stocked kitchens on every patient floor where we invite the volunteers, loved ones, or community members to come in and bake cookies or fresh baked bread because the smells wafting down the hall create a “homey” environment and a sense and feeling that is not stressful, and is actually designed to reduce stress. We spend a lot of time on those environment issues, what the patients see, taste, touch, and smell.”

Mid-Columbia Medical Center is well on its way to providing patients with memorable customer experiences. Consider its focus on the sense of smell (e.g., baked cookies or fresh baked bread) alone:

Memories, imagination, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel. In humans there are four genes for vision, whereas there are 1,000 allocated to scent, which means we have the ability to differentiate more than 10,000 odors. According to the Sense of Smell Institute, 75 percent of all emotions we generate are due to what we smell.

The results are amazing. Overall length of stay has steadily declined even though the level of average illness that Mid-Columbia Medical Center sees with its patients has gone steadily up. They are able to admit patients and treat them in a shorter amount of time. In essence, they are healing faster.

I had worked a full day in Washington, D.C. and then flew to Detroit for a presentation the following morning. I arrived late at the airport in Detroit and as I exited the terminal with my bags at around midnight, was confronted by a number of aggressive limo drivers.

I passed by several drivers and cars that issued subtle (or not so subtle) indicators that I may regret accepting their service. A few yards further, I was pleasantly surprised by an immaculately dressed limousine driver whose Lincoln Town Car was spotless. I confirmed the fare to the Renaissance Center downtown, handed him my bags, and entered the back seat through a door he held open.

When he returned to the driver’s seat and began to pull away from the curb, he asked me if I’d care for a chilled bottle of water.  Pleasantly surprised, I accepted.  He then asked me what type of music I was interested in. I told him that my taste in music was all over the board but that, at this late hour and with a 30 minute ride ahead of us, I’d appreciate something mellow.

He said, “Here, let me surprise you.” And I nodded off to Tony Bennett singing Because of You…

When we arrived at the hotel, the hand-off to the hotel’s staff was just as seamless and professional as my reception had been at the airport.

Naturally, I rewarded his attention to detail, professionalism, and memorable customer service. Like most customers who are pleasantly surprised by the service they receive, I tipped more than I would have ordinarily and I requested a card in order to schedule a return trip to the airport with him the following day.

How can you distinguish your business from the competition? What can you do to make an impression by pleasantly surprising your customers?

Conveying authentic enthusiasm that adds a bit of a spark to an otherwise predictable transaction is an effective way for employees to express their uniqueness while making it memorable for customers.

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says that, “Any job is twenty percent knowledge and eighty percent interpersonal skills.” Consider how one’s authentic enthusiasm for serving customers influences his or her interpersonal skills.

Customers can easily detect whether or not someone is genuinely interested in serving them. The well-known UCLA communications study suggests that 55 percent of one’s trust and believability comes from the visual effect—her body language. According to the study, 38 percent comes from the vocal effect (i.e., vocal tone, inflection), and only 7 percent is attributed to the verbal effect (i.e., chosen words of speech).

The best illustration of conveying authentic enthusiasm that I’ve come across lately comes from the book, Flipping The Switch by John G. Miller, an expert in Personal Accountability and also author of the best selling book, QBQ! As you read the story below, ask yourself, “How does Larry’s authentic enthusiasm for serving customers influence his interpersonal skills—the way he interacts and communicates with travelers?”

It was 10 P.M. in Albuquerque, and my flight home to Tucson through Phoenix had been delayed due to bad weather. My new estimated time of arrival was 2 A.M. But things quickly improved, thanks to an airport security officer named Larry. He will forever raise the bar for TSA officers at airports everywhere!

Larry was directing passengers to several lines for baggage X-ray and security checks. What was totally surprising, however, was his enthusiastic approach to the job. Instead of mechanically pointing travelers to line number one or two, Larry proudly introduced himself to thirty or so exhausted passengers by shouting, “Good evening, everyone, my name is Larry. I’ll be helping you through security tonight. And just so you all know, it’s my birthday!”

Well, I couldn’t contain myself after seeing and feeling his enthusiasm, so I shouted back, “Happy birthday, Larry!” He giggled and said, “It’s not really my birthday, I just love the attention!” Then, like a maître d’ in a fine restaurant, he asked the folks next in line, “How many in your party?”

They replied, “Three.”

He responded, “Smoking or non?”

Meanwhile, a new line had been opened. As he waved several people into it, he quoted the movie Finding Nemo by chanting, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!” Everyone cracked up! By now, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how Larry’s attitude buoyed so many weary travelers. Then to the group behind me he declared, “Hi, everyone! I’m Larry!” And like a group attending a self-help seminar, the crowd enthusiastically replied in unison, “Hi, Larry!” As they moved toward the scanners, he joyfully delivered their instructions. I continued on to my gate as Larry’s cheerful voice faded into the background.

And the best part was watching the other TSA officers working nearby. They were smiling from a distance, wanting to have as much fun as Larry—but not knowing how. What a shame that the only thing holding any of us back from being more like Larry is…ourselves!

Larry is genuinely filled with enthusiasm and authentically conveys this enthusiasm to travelers in a way that is unique, perhaps even singular, and matches his style and personality. Authentic enthusiasm may be animated or may be reserved, but it will be real.

How do you express your enthusiasm for serving others?

Personal importance is often misunderstood at the frontline service provider level in the hospitality industry. I’ve had participants in customer service classes who challenge the notion that anyone should be treated any differently than anyone else. Some see acknowledging one’s personal importance or “Elite” status as favoritism. Others see it as an affront to their own social status, as though they are of a subservient class.

My response to these participants is that by personal importance, we are not suggesting a social hierarchy whereby customers are treated as more important people. Personal importance implies the acknowledgment of their importance as customers and the value they bring to the business through personal spending, loyalty, referrals, etc.

The best illustration of personal importance that I’ve come across lately comes from the book, The New Gold Standard by Joseph A. Michelli:

A guest of The Ritz-Carlton wrote a letter to the company president, Simon Cooper. In the letter the guest recalled:

“One of your employees and I got on an elevator in your building. I pushed the sixth-floor button and he pushed none. Instead of getting off with me on the sixth floor, your employee simply said, ‘Have a nice day.’ Upon exiting the elevator, I asked, ‘Where are you going? Aren’t you getting off here?’ Your employee replied, ‘No, I’m going back down to the fifth floor.”

The guest goes on to write, “I couldn’t believe it—how do you find people who are so invested in placing the needs of their guest above their own?”

The opposite of placing the needs of customers above your own is to place your needs above theirs. This happens all the time when companies cite “policy” as the rationale for not meeting the needs of their customers. Other times, customers may perceive that they’re being treated indifferently—like they don’t matter—and feel as though their business is being taken for granted.

One survey revealed that 68 percent of customers quit doing business with a company because of perceived indifference towards them as customers. That’s shameful!

So, ask yourself these questions: What might my staff and I be doing that may be, perhaps unwittingly, communicating indifference towards the customers we serve? And, what actions can we take immediately to acknowledge the personal importance of our customers?

I recall a Gallup statistic from a few years ago that 65% of American workers claim to have received no recognition in the workplace in the previous 12 months. If that’s true—as it apparently is for those workers—then ask yourself, “How might I be contributing to this perception by employees that they are receiving no recognition?”

To illustrate, here’s an example of how my 6 yr. old son, Coleton, felt slighted—even though he had been affirmed by his first grade school teacher:

I had been preparing for a training course involving statistics and offhandedly mentioned to Cole that there was a mathematical “pi” in addition to the dessert “pie.” He seemed puzzled (as would most 6 yr. olds) so I explained to him that the “pi” used in advanced mathematics is of great importance in connection to continued fractions, logarithms of imaginary numbers, and periodic functions. After my explanation, he looked at me with wide eyes, then squinted, and said, “Can you do this (as he moved his eyebrows up and down)?”

Okay, so maybe he was a little young for an explanation of “pi.” I did soften it a bit by calling it “a secret fudge factor” and told him that, if his teacher asked, pi was equivalent to (approx.) 3.14—which he seemed to grasp. He brought it up to me a couple more times to let me know that he remembered the value of pi was 3.14 and I told him that if he shared that with his teacher, then she would probably move him up to the fifth grade!

Of course I was kidding but Cole was determined to impress his teacher. So the very next day at school, he mentioned his new found fact to her.

As he recalled the conversation, he walked up to his teacher as she was preparing for story time and said, “I know that pi is equal to 3.14.” She responded, “That’s correct” and resumed her preparations. Cole said that, as he sat down on the carpet with the other kids, he thought to himself, “I should have got more encouragement than that.”

The moral of this story is that, while you may be thinking that you recognize co-workers all the time by saying things like, “Good job!” and “Thank you,” the reality for your co-workers may be that these canned responses to their workplace performance are meaningless.

What they may be longing for (and consider to be true recognition) is something more specific such as, “Good job acknowledging Mr. Larson as a repeat guest. I bet that made him feel welcomed” or “Thank you for staying late and covering my section while I dealt with that billing issue.”

Cole’s story was a great reminder to me that in order for recognition to be effective, it has to be meaningful to the recipient. It was also yet another example of how my kids teach me things everyday.

What about you? Have you benefited from this post? Will you be a bit more specific in the recognition you share with others today?