The 10-Foot Rule

“The 10-Foot Rule” is a very simple rule, but it’s not so easy to implement at first. However, if you can figure out how to incorporate it into your daily life, it’s magical. At work it will improve your relationship with your customer, your teammates, and even your boss. And if you use it in your daily life you’ll find that you live in a much friendlier neighborhood. Pretty cool, huh?

First the bad news. 

We’ve got tons of baggage, or preprogramming, that that often keeps us from doing the simplest things in life, and this is one of them. 

 “Don’t talk to strangers.” Sound familiar? As children we were all taught this in hopes that it would keep us safe.

Another one, “Speak only when spoken to.”

These are probably good things for us to learn as kids, but as adults this kind of ingrained instruction hurts our ability to connect with others.

Old habits die hard.

As a result of this ingrained training, even as adults, we move through our daily lives keeping to ourselves. We often don’t look at people we don’t know much less engage with them. And if we have to spend much time around them (i.e. on a bus or a subway) we plug in the headphones so we can completely ignore them without seeming rude.

Sometimes I wish there were a switch that could shut off all the things we’re supposed to do as a child, and turn on all the things we’re supposed to do as an adult. Until we find that switch we have to figure out something else.

Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker with a “folksy” way of communicating says, “The best way to get rid of weeds is to plant crab grass.” His point is, the best way to eliminate an old habit is to trade it for a new habit. That’s where the 10-Foot Rule comes in.

The 10-Foot Rule: 

Warmly acknowledge EVERYONE that comes within 10-feet of you.

Yup, that’s it! Give a big grin and a warm “Hello” or “How ya doin’?” to everyone within a 10-foot radius of you.

Imagine for a moment that you are standing still (I know, in the customer service game it’s hard to imagine right, but give it a shot). Now imagine that there is a big radiant glow emanating from your body in a 10-foot radius.

I picture it like a giant glowing hula-hoop shaped force field that’s always attached to me, and I simply acknowledge anyone that breaks the edge of the force field.

If you put the 10-Foot Rule into practice at work your ability to connect with your customer will dramatically improve. And if you begin to acknowledge those that break your “force field” in your daily life, you will be surprised at the positive response you will get from those in your community.

Tune in next time for more adventures from a Service Superhero.

Remember, I can transfer my abilities, or Superpowers, to anyone that truly wants them. Let me know if you'd like to set up a training seminar for your service team, so you can begin to deliver "Superhero Service" to each and every one of your Guests.

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said here, or would just like to share a Service related story or insight, I'd love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

4 Ways To Make Sure Your Customers Have No Bad Moments

Legendary filmmaker Howard Hawks said that to make a good movie you needed “Three good scenes and no bad ones.” If your customer’s visit is a film where they are the star, and we change the term “scene” to “moment”, we now have a tangible roadmap that will ultimately lead to a great Customer Experience. Last week we looked at the first half of that statement in How To Create 3 GoodMoments For Your Customer, and this week we’ll tackle the last portion.

Do these 4 things to avoid any Bad Moments with your customers.

1.     Engineer their experience – Carl Sewell has a chapter in his book Customers For Life called “Systems, Not Smiles” where he covers the fact that having the right systems in place will help ensure a great experience for your customer. He claims that systematic approaches are 80% of customer service, and I agree with him 100%.

You want your customer to be able to flow through the process of interacting with your company. The best way to make sure your system flows is to walk through it yourself. I covered this in a previous blogpost, Improve Your Customer Experience Today. Make sure that you have the right systems in place. Remove all obstacles!

2. Tell ‘em what your going to do for them, and them make them a promise – Tell your customer about the experience they’re going to have and then look them in the eye and tell them what you’re going to do for them. Let’s say that you’re the only bellman and there are two guests checking into your hotel at the same time. When the first Guest is ready to go, tell the second Guest:

                       “I’m going to help these folks up to their room with their stuff. When 

                       you get done checking in, feel free to head on up to your room, and I’ll 

                       be right behind you with your bags.”

          Or, let’s say you work in a clothing store, and a customer hands you a claim ticket to pick up               his altered suit:

“I’ll grab your suit, and get you into a fitting room. Then I’m going to make sure that it fits you like it’s supposed to. I’ll be right back.”

           Tell them what’s going to happen, then look them in the eye and tell them what you’re going              to do for them during this process.

3. Deliver more – Certainly deliver everything you’ve promised, but if you stop there, how memorable was that interaction? You have met their expectations. That’s like getting a “C” in school. You have to go above and beyond, you have to deliver more. 

In his book What’s YourPurple Goldfish Stan Phelps introduces a Creole word “lagniappe” (lan-yap) which means “the gift” or “to give more”. The extra thing could be a tangible item, or simply some bonus information. The point is, you MUST give them something of value that’s unexpected.

4. Tell ‘em what you’ve done - Make sure to tell them about the extra thing you’ve done for them. It’s not bragging it’s just informing them. If they’re unaware of it, it didn’t really happen. It’s like that old saying, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, did it make a sound?”

          Don’t just fold their merchandise and wrap it in tissue before putting it in the bag, as you hand             them the bag say, “I just folded up your stuff and made it look all pretty for you.” The first part             of that sentence conveys the gift that you’ve given, but the most important two words there are            the last two: for you. That’s what makes it special.

If you do the above four things every time with every customer, they will have zero Bad Moments. Combine that with the information in last week’s post, and you’ve got a formula that will ensure a great Customer Experience every time. Deliver consistently at this level, and you will become the service superstar in your industry.

Tune in next time for more adventures from a Service Superhero.

Remember, I can transfer my abilities, or Superpowers, to anyone that truly wants them. Let me know if you'd like to set up a training seminar for your service team, so you can begin to deliver "Superhero Service" to each and every one of your Guests.

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said here, or would just like to share a Service related story or insight, I'd love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

How To Create 3 Good Moments For Your Customer

We spent time last week in Deliver An ExcellentExperience: Make Your Customer The Star establishing that when your customer enters your place of business, they are the stars of their movie. We also established that Service Superheroes should embrace the role of a supporting character.

If we are going to look at your customers visit to your establishment in movie terms, then maybe we should take a deeper look into movies in general, and see if there’s anything else we can learn from this medium.

There is a famous quote in Hollywood by legendary filmmaker Howard Hawks who said that a great movie is comprised of “three good scenes and no bad ones.” If your customers visit is a film, and we change the term “scene” to “moment”, we now have a tangible roadmap that will ultimately lead to a great Customer Experience. 

Three Good Moments

It’s kind of easy to imagine movie moments during a Guest’s stay in a hotel; we’ve all seen Pretty Woman. Hotels lobbies are beautifully designed like film sets, and there’s plenty of time during their stay to create 3 good moments, but I’m going to show you how to do this, regardless of your place of business, or how long your customer is there.

Let’s say that you run a cheap jewelry store in the mall, and Mary comes in and buys a pair of earrings. (I guess I should’ve prefaced that last part with SPOILER ALERT. Yes, Mary buys the earrings).

Mary’s going out tonight and she’s looking for a specific pair of earrings to wear. She’ll probably only be in your store for a total of five minutes. I hear your question, “How could we possibly have time to create three good moments in this scenario?” Let me show you.

1) Connection – When Mary met Sally

Mary enters your store, and is greeted warmly by your best sales associate, Sally, who initiates light banter. They start talking about, well… anything but jewelry. Through this brief conversation Mary discovers that Sally has similar interests, or a good sense of humor, or a shared concern about frizzy hair with regard to the humidity. The point is, they are talking about stuff that they have in common.

This moment is called a connection, and it happens when Mary begins to feel that Sally is more then just a salesperson; she’s an actual person. It doesn’t need to take long at all. In fact, I’ve seen it happen in 3 seconds over a sports jersey. Actually connecting with someone is a really good moment, because it doesn’t happen all that often.

2) Listen – There’s Something About Mary

Mary tells her new friend Sally, that she’s looking for a pair of earrings. Sally doesn’t start showing Mary anything at this point because she’s not trying to sell Marry a pair of earrings. Sally’s job is to try to solve Mary’s problem, and at this point she doesn’t have enough information yet.

Sally instead asks some follow-up questions in order to really understand what Mary’s got in mind. She lets Mary explain about the event she’s going to, the color of dress she’s looking to coordinate with, what her date will be wearing, and what ever else Mary is concerned about.

Once Sally feels that she understands what Mary’s looking for, she takes Mary to the area of the store that has earrings that match the criteria that Mary has laid out. Sally shows her a few choices, and then leads Mary through the narrowing process based on all the information Mary has given her.

When is the last time someone listened to you, and truly got what you were talking about? That’s a good moment!

3) Good Value – My Fair Lady

Perceived value is sometimes a tough thing to gauge, but Mary walked into this particular store because she anticipated that they would have earrings in a specific price range. If the price is WAY out of line with her preconceived notion, this would not be a good moment. But for this example…

Once Mary has selected the “right” set of earrings, she flips over the card that they’re attached to, and she notices that the price seems fair.

Sally then takes Mary to the register, rings her up and hands her a small bag with her purchase inside. Mary takes the bag and as she exits the store, she reflects back on her experience…

No she doesn’t. If everything happened like I’ve said, she’s checked earrings off her list, and she’s on to the next thing. 

Wait, what?!?

We did all this work and she isn’t even going to think about it? That’s right, if everything goes right, there’s no need for Mary to keep this experience in the front of her mind. The only time she'll ever need to think about her experience at your jewelry store is if she’s reminded about it: for example when someone comments on her earrings and asks where she got them.

Service Superheroes are working for that moment, because nothing will ever be as persuasive as Mary telling a friend about her experience at your store. Those three good moments will be recalled fondly, and her friend will be able to tell from her facial expressions, the tone of her voice, and the light in her eyes, that she’s speaking the truth.

Tune in next week for more adventures from a Service Superhero, where we’ll look at the other side of Howard Hawks quote and discover the 4 steps that will keep “Bad Moments” from happening.

Remember, I can transfer my abilities, or Superpowers, to anyone who truly wants them. Let me know if you'd like to set up a training seminar for your service team, so you can begin to deliver "Superhero Service" to each and every one of your customers.

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said here, or would just like to share a Service related story or insight, I'd love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

Deliver An Excellent Experience: Make Your Customer The Star

We are each the stars of our own movies, that’s just how we’re wired. But when it comes to delivering a great Customer Experience, you’ll have to accept a supporting role in their movie.

When I walk through the door of my favorite coffee shop my theme music kicks in. As I sit down to write a blogpost, like this one for example, all of the people sitting around me become characters in my movie.

There’s the young girl to my right who is frantically flipping through the piles of paperwork on her table, desperately searching for… Quite frankly I don’t really care what it is, because it doesn’t affect MY movie.

There’s a man sitting at the table in front of me, I’m guessing he’s a screenwriter. He seems to be struggling to craft the perfect scene in a film destined to win an Oscar, if he can just figure out the “cute-meet” between the two romantic leads… Truth be told, I have no idea what he’s working on.

Speaking of romance, there’s the cute girl sitting a few tables away in her baseball cap looking all, well… cute. (hey, I’m a blogger, not a poet). 

You know what I’m talking about right? Well, maybe not the theme music, but all the rest of it. If all I do is sit here and stare at the cute girl, she’ll never become anything more than an extra in MY movie. Our brains are full of important things, and by tomorrow I will have forgotten about her, and all the rest of these people, because there was absolutely no interaction between us.

As many of you already know I used to be in the Entertainment Industry, first as an actor, then as a director, and finally as a screenwriter. During that time I heard it said that an extra is like a living, breathing, potted plant, like expensive set decoration. To emphasize this point, these actors are often called “background.”

When your customer first comes into your place of business, you are no more then an extra in their movie. Your job is to work your way up the ladder and become a supporting character.

The difference between an extra and a day-player, is that the latter has lines. A supporting character takes it a step farther, and actually interacts with the lead. In a screenwriting class I took, the instructor said, “The best supporting characters don’t support, they push.” These supporting characters are so influential, they impact the main character’s life, and cause them to make choices that alter the course of the film.

Lets see how all this works in the real world. 

Say you’re the only one working today in a jewelry store, and Sam walks in while you’re with another customer. While Sam hovers around the watch case, both you and the other customer are extras, or background, in HIS movie.

When your customer leaves, you approach Sam and ask, “Looking for anything in particular?” Congratulations, you’ve just become a day-player in HIS movie. If Sam says, “Just looking.” and you leave to go do your paperwork, you probably will never become anything more.

According to the definition above, if you are able to sell him the watch he’s been looking for, you’ve just become a supporting character because you had a meaningful interaction with him. This is better for all concerned. Sam got the watch he needed, and he can stop wasting time in his “movie” looking for it, and you made a sale.

But if while you’re working with him, you discover that he’s been dating his girlfriend for nearly five years, and that he’s been considering proposing to her. You, being a good salesperson, take him over to the ring counter. Now, if while you’re working with him, he makes the decision to propose to her, and buys a ring from you, you’ve become a much more important supporting character in Sam’s movie. His interaction with you has caused him to make a choice that will forever alter the course of his life. This is where “Best Supporting” Oscars get earned.

This kind of a life-changing event would be considered an act break. Sam’s whole life up to this point was going one way, and in this moment, he will begin to chart a new course.

William Shakespeare, who knew a thing or two about storytelling has this quote that puts it all in perspective:

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”

As a person delivering Superhero Service, your job is to embrace your supporting role in your customer’s movie, and ensure that you have an impact in their life.

Tune in next week for more adventures from a Service Superhero, and I’ll show you how to turn your Customer’s Experience into a great moment in their “movie” by following the advice of a legendary filmmaker.

Remember, I can transfer my abilities, or Superpowers, to anyone who truly wants them. Let me know if you'd like to set up a training seminar for your service team, so you can begin to deliver "Superhero Service" to each and every one of your customers. 

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said here, or would just like to share a Service related story or insight, I'd love to hear from you. Please post a comment below.