Delivering Customer Delight

“Don’t for­get, a per­son­’s great­est emo­tion­al need is to feel appre­ci­at­ed.” — H. Jack­son Brown Jr., author of ​“Life’s Lit­tle Instruc­tion Book: 511 Sug­ges­tions, Obser­va­tions, and Reminders on How to Live a Hap­py and Reward­ing Life”.

As we talked about before, the cus­tomer is the boss — the most impor­tant per­son we need to focus on keep­ing happy.

And while there are many com­pli­cat­ed things we can do to improve cus­tomer hap­pi­ness, it’s often the sim­plest things that can make the biggest difference.

Recent­ly, I was in Dubai for a cou­ple of weeks. One day, I returned to my room in the Oberoi (just vot­ed the World’s Best Hotel Brand by Trav­el & Leisure Mag­a­zine), to find a note on my bed from the house­keep­ing staff. They had observed that I would soon run out of tooth­paste, and thought I might appre­ci­ate a new tube.

I hadn’t even noticed! And yes, I did appre­ci­ate it.

The inter­est­ing thing about this hotel brand (known for their amaz­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty and ser­vice) is that they dis­cour­age guests from tip­ping indi­vid­ual peo­ple in the hotel. So the per­son who helps you is not even try­ing to get a tip. It’s just deep in their cul­ture to be thoughtful.

So you can pro­vide train­ing, and come up with sys­tems and process­es to improve ser­vice but, in real­i­ty, just look­ing for ways to make someone’s life eas­i­er is extreme­ly powerful.

It’s not dif­fi­cult. It’s about thought­ful­ness — and the inten­tion to do some­thing spe­cial for anoth­er human being. Here are a cou­ple of examples…

Years ago, while in con­ver­sa­tion with a CEO I worked with, dur­ing a retreat in a beau­ti­ful water­front home, I admired a unique piece of art on the wall – it was like a sculp­ture com­bined with a paint­ing. Months lat­er, at the next quar­ter­ly meet­ing, I was shocked when it was pre­sent­ed to me as a gift. When I expressed my appre­ci­a­tion to the CEO lat­er, she said that she con­tin­u­al­ly looks for clues for the lit­tle things that peo­ple may want or desire — and that it is her joy in life to get them for them. She was sim­ply pay­ing atten­tion, and I still remem­ber her thought­ful ges­ture today.

My wife has an absolute gift for know­ing people’s pref­er­ences for food and bev­er­ages. She knows the favourites and the dis­likes of every­one we know, and makes sure we have the right things on hand when they come over. It’s her way of look­ing after people.

So how can you make this part of your cul­ture? To have peo­ple look for the lit­tle things that make peo­ple happy?

The fun­ny thing is that lis­ten­ing for what peo­ple need, and being thought­ful, actu­al­ly leads to more busi­ness and deep­er rela­tion­ships. The best per­form­ing sales­peo­ple are mas­ter­ful at this: They lis­ten, they pay atten­tion – and, as a result, are the most suc­cess­ful. (“Extra shoes, and a belt to go with that suit, sir?”) And, as a cus­tomer, we appre­ci­ate it.

Whether you notice the tooth­paste is low, or offer a great tie to go with that suit, or see some­one with a prob­lem, just do some­thing to help.

In busi­ness, we get so focused on process­es and the work we have to do, we often stop doing the extra lit­tle things that make a big difference.

Now every­one has dif­fer­ent gifts. I don’t have my wife’s kind of thought­ful­ness. My gift is to help lead­ers solve their most press­ing chal­lenges. And, in that, I’m insane­ly thought­ful. If I see some­one who has a bru­tal prob­lem, I jump in to help.

So if you rec­og­nize that you aren’t good about the lit­tle things that make a big dif­fer­ence, look for peo­ple in your com­pa­ny who do, and then make it eas­i­er for them to be thought­ful – to bring a lit­tle delight — to your customers.