Outstanding Customer Service Starts With A Blink
You can't deliver outstanding experience without this one skill
Customer Service begins at the blink of an eye – and it’s easy to miss your opportunity to make a positive first impression. Constantly being aware of your surroundings is one of the first customer service skills you need to develop. Here’s an example why:
An "Aha" customer experience
I had one of those “aha” customer service experiences a while back while checking into a hotel. The woman behind the check-in counter had her head down, looking at something on her screen, as I approached with my luggage rumbling behind me. Her head stayed down when I stopped at the counter. I waited.
Maybe she didn’t see me. So, I moved a little closer so that the button on my new shirt, the white one with the light blue stripes, was touching the counter. Nothing.
Had I left my invisibility cloak on?
A full minute passed and I gently cleared my throat. She still didn’t look up. I estimated the distance between me and her to be around 28 inches. If I got any closer, I’d have to climb on the counter. Another minute went by, and I checked to make sure I hadn’t accidentally left my invisibility cloak on. I hadn’t. So I finally cleared my throat and said, “Hi.”
Without looking up, she said matter-of-factly, “I’ll be right with you.”
Huh. She had known I was there all along. I don’t think I’d had the opportunity to offend her yet, so the only conclusion left was that she just didn’t care.
She was good. But it was too late
When she finally did raise her head and talk with me, she was smiling, pleasant, humorous and efficient – all the skills one would expect from a customer service professional. When our interaction was finished and I was walking to my room, it occurred to me that I still had a bad feeling about her. Despite the whole experience was largely excellent, I couldn’t shake that first impression.
It really shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. First impressions is dominant theme in our customer service training programs. We will often spend upwards to an hour exploring that first five seconds of an interaction.
People judge us in the blink of an eye
An hour of training? Are first impressions really that important in creating outstanding customer service? Apparently so. Researchers from Princeton University determined that people begin judging us in 1/10th of a second. That’s the blink of an eye, and it’s a little scary.
Scarier still is earlier research telling us that our first impressions don’t readily change over time – even when later evidence overwhelmingly tells us we’re wrong.
Once a Jerk, Always a Jerk
So, basically, if I were to walk into a room and your first impression of me is, “Well, he looks like a jerk,” I’m in trouble. Because if I don’t do anything to change that impression within just a minute or two, you will think of me as a jerk forever. I could save the world, and you’d be saying, “Yeah, sure he saved the world — but he’s still a jerk.”
The old sayings are true
The old sayings are true: “First impressions are lasting impressions,” and “You never have a second chance to make a first impression.” In the world of customer service it’s the one skill set you can’t ignore, because if you blow it, you can never really recover. The skills you need are many, but here are the big ones:
Body Language
In a face-to-face interaction, your body language begins speaking long before your mouth does – and often before you’ve even seen the customer. Your smile, eye-contact (or absence of them), and your posture are being instantly recorded by customers.
Tone of Voice
If you are on the telephone, the first impression customers get is through your tone of voice. Do you sound interested? Bored? Mechanical? This is one of the most neglected skills out there. The level of energy you put into your voice when you are face-to-face with a customer is not even close to being good enough when you are on the phone.
Your choice of words
Your choice of words in that first five seconds is critical. They will either send the message that you care or that you don’t. There are better and worse ways to say everything. Choose the better ways.
This isn't a customer service lesson - it's a life lesson
First impressions are critical in creating outstanding customer experiences. These are the precious few moments where you start to build trust with people – and they begin to decide your levels of caring, competence and integrity.
First impressions are equally important in our personal lives. Going to a job interview? Guess how long it takes for most interviewers to decide whether you make it to the next stage?
You got it. In the blink of an eye.
First date? Blink. First day in class? Blink. First day in the new job? Blink. Meeting your partner’s parents Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink
Getting first impressions right isn’t something we should ever take for granted.
