This post is the first in a series that will identify 10 different customer service advantages that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you have capitalized on one or more of these advantages in your own business? The first advantage is to express genuine interest.

Expressing genuine interest takes many forms: engaging communication; anticipating needs; displaying attention to detail; following-up; conveying a sense of urgency; etc.

In this post, I’ll reference a Feb. 15, 2012 Wall Street Journal article titled, Shopping Secrets of the Pros by Ray A. Smith that contains several examples of retail sales associates expressing genuine interest in their customers.

Engaging communication:

One of the top-ranked sales associates profiled in the article, Claudia Coleman of Neiman Marcus, said, “You have to listen to the customer. Ask them their favorite color, what they like, what they do—all these questions to be able to understand their needs.”

Anticipate needs:

Many of Ms. Coleman’s customers attend the same charity events and galas, and so she has become known for discreetly keeping track of who buys what for which event. When someone wants a dress that Ms. Coleman knows another woman has already bought, she’ll say, “I’m very sorry, that dress has been sold,” and guide them to something else.

Display attention to detail:

Keeping track of all those moving parts is a challenge. Ms. Coleman keeps meticulous notes and memorizes dates and purchases.

Follow-up:

Ms. Coleman follows up purchases with a thank-you note, and she often goes a step further, making a phone call or sending a text to ask how the purchase worked out or to call a customer’s attention to something new in the store.

By expressing genuine interest in her customers, Ms. Coleman has an advantage over average sales associates. This advantage not only distinguishes her as a top-ranked personal shopper, it also separates Neiman Marcus from average department stores in the eyes of its customers.

How do you express genuine interest in your customers?

Last week, I brought my car into Car Wash Express to remove the window paint my son had used over the weekend to decorate the car for his playoff football game.

As I pulled up to the attendant’s station, I saw there were three different wash packages offered: $6 Basic Wash, $9 Super Wash, and $12 Ultimate Wash.

The attendant, Dane, asked me which option I would prefer. I responded, “Whichever one will remove this window paint.”

Dane suggested the $9 Super Wash. I agreed, paid for the wash, and pulled my car forward onto the conveyor belt that would pull my car through the automated wash. The wash began with an employee using a scrub brush to manually tackle the obvious spots—in my case, the window paint.

Since the car was being pulled slowly forward on the conveyor belt, the employee was limited on the amount of time he could spend removing the window paint. As a result, after the car wash ended and I pulled forward into the lot, remnants of window paint remained.

Now you might recall that, at the beginning of this post when Dane asked which wash package I wanted to buy, I answered, “Whichever one will remove this window paint.” And he had advised me to purchase the $9 Super Wash.

About this time, Dane appeared beside my driver’s side window and motioned for me to pull back around for a second run through the car wash. When I arrived at the entrance, there was Dane with a bottle of degreaser and a scrub brush. He personally ensured that all of the window paint had been removed before my second trip through the wash.

Let me just say that, based on previous experience in similar situations, Dane’s commitment to ensuring that the window paint had been completely removed was unexpected. Ordinarily, a car wash attendant who processes hundreds of cars each day through an automated facility, would accept payment, issue a receipt, and move on to the next vehicle—very process-focused and transactional.

But Dane chose to express genuine interest in the cleanliness of my car by following up at the end of the wash cycle to ensure the window paint had been removed. And when he saw that traces of the paint remained, he took steps to correct it.

Although my son’s team lost its playoff game, Dane’s follow up won me over as a customer.