Do you ever have a day where everything seems to go wrong from the start?
Everything seems dark and even the light at the end of the tunnel is the train coming.
The rain cloud follows you around all day.
The situation that many find themselves in is covered up with, I am doing ok.
Last week I had one of those days. I just could not see the positive in anything. What do you do when you are having a bad day. I decided to head to the local coffee shop and escape for a short time. A place to read and hide out from other things.
What’s this got to do with customer service? Hang in here for a minute or two.
After getting my coffee I found an empty chair where I could sit down and disappear for a short time. One of my friends was close by, and he started asking me how I was. I explained that I was not in good form and was having a bad day. It’s good to be open sometimes! With that one of the staff came past where he decided to tell her I was in bad form. She proceeded to say that she had noticed that I was in bad form. My face must have been telling a story!
Giving customer service is like going one mile with them. It is giving them what is expected. Going to a coffee shop you have certain expectations. You expect to be served, promptly, with a smile. There is to be a certain level of cleanliness and the coffee is to have a quality about it. Your expectations will be different if you are eating in a fast-food venue or a 5-star restaurant. All my expectations had been met. They had delivered the mile of customer service.
The eXtra mile of service is when you give your customer something they didn’t expect or pay for. What is your eXtra mile of service that you give to your customers and clients. This is something they are not paying for or expecting from you. Stop and note them today. one example I heard of recently from two accountants who have decided not to charge for additional services due to COVID. One of them calculated that if they had charged it would have been invoiced at a value of over £50k. That is going the eXtra mile for your clients.
The coffee shop staff member arrived at my table with a chocolate to bring a smile to my face. Did she have to? Did I expect it? She did not have to or did I expect it. She had delivered an eXtra mile service. I am sure it didn’t cost her a future, it was a small inexpensive gift. It was appreciated!
What could you do to deliver the eXtra mile service to your customers? You never know, you might just put a smile on their face for a day.