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.
