Now contrast the above story with this one:  It too is a true story.  Last weekend, I stopped by an Ulta salon for a haircut.  The stylist was a good conversationalist, took her time, and did a good job.

As I was paying for the haircut, Roxanne expressed genuine interest in a cut that I had bandaged on my right thumb.  She hadn’t noticed it before now and asked, “O-h-h…what did you do to your thumb?”

I explained that I really didn’t injure it.  It was just that during the winter months in Colorado, it’s especially dry and my skin tends to crack on my thumb and one or two other areas of my hand.  I told her that I’d tried a variety of lotions but nothing seemed to help.

She then said, “Have you tried Glysolid?” as she lead me to the product.  She handed me the thin red container saying, “You should try this.  I used to have the same condition but now my hands are silky smooth—see?”  She held out her hands for me to inspect and guess what?  They were smooth and she made a $9 sale!

Think about it:  How often do you really encounter employees like Roxanne who express genuinely interest in you?  Now, consider how often you encounter employees who are apathetic—employees you might characterize as indifferent toward serving you, the customer (e.g., employees who might say, “If you didn’t see it on the shelf then we don’t carry it.  Have a nice day.”).

Would these employees demonstrate the care and concern necessary to ask about an injury you may have received to your thumb?  Would these employees really bother to take a personal interest in you?  Probably not.  Would they have made an additional $9 sale like Roxanne?  Probably not.

Memorable service drives sales.  Forgettable service does not.

Expressing genuine interest in the customer that exceeds the functional requirements to complete the transaction is an effective way to express one’s uniqueness while making it memorable for customers.

For instance, a bilingual employee who speaks Spanish may say, “Bienvenido. ¿Cómo está usted?” to a customer she overheard speaking Spanish to a colleague. Or perhaps a well-traveled employee could ask a specific question based on where the customer is from that communicates his interest in the customer. If the customer is from Kauai, for example, and the employee recently vacationed there, then he might say, “Kauai is amazing! I recently traveled there and explored the entire island from the Waimea Canyon to the Na Pali coastline.” This customer will likely smile and engage in some conversation about his homeland, perhaps sharing a local’s perspective on a place this employee should be sure to visit during his next trip to Kauai.

But you don’t have to be bilingual or well-traveled to express genuine interest in your customers. To me, when Nordstrom employees walk around the counter to hand me my purchases—while smiling, making eye contact and sincerely thanking me for my business—they are expressing genuine interest in me as a customer.

The opposite of expressing genuine interest is to ignore or express disinterest in serving customers. Have you ever felt ignored as a customer? Have you ever felt like an interruption in a service provider’s day (i.e., “If customers would just stop bothering me, maybe I could get some work done around here!”).

Customers can easily detect when employees are genuinely interested and engaged versus apathetic and merely going through the motions. According to one study, 68% of customers quit doing business with a company because of perceived indifference toward them as a customer. They didn’t say that the service provider was blatantly rude or obnoxious—the word was indifference.