We live in a time where people are over scheduled, and they have lots and lots of distractions. As a result, very little if anything gets someone’s undivided attention. So give your customers a different kind of experience when they interact with you. Make them a priority and give them your total focus during the time you have with them.
Work to treat them so well and feel so important to the point where they feel like they are the most important customer in the world. Answer their calls, respond to their emails, don’t take calls or look at your phone when they are in your presence. Make them feel like the time you are spending with them is the most important thing you could be doing at the moment.
Examples
- On a recent trip to the hair salon, the stylist made me feel super important. Since moving to Florida, I needed to find someone new to do my hair. During the appointment, it was just me and the stylist in the salon. She could have easily turned on the television, talked on the phone, or just listened to music the whole time, but she didn’t. She chatted me up, and we got to know each other pretty well as we spent those hours together. I’m looking forward to going back to her in the future.
- One year when doing my taxes, I ran into an issue with the online program I was using. When I contacted the support desk, the woman who helped me gave me her complete and undivided attention for at least an hour until the situation was totally resolved. Even when I felt like I could find my way through the rest of the process, the kind woman on the other end of the line prompted me to stay on with her so she could ensure I completed my taxes without further issue. It was a really busy day, and she could have hurried me off the phone to get to the next customer. But she stuck with me, even when I wanted to quit to make sure I was able to accomplish my goal.
Suggestions
- Get out of the habit of multi-tasking. It doesn’t allow you to do any one thing well, and you won’t be able to give your customer your undivided attention if you’re trying to do something else at the same time. Besides, your customers can tell when you are distracted. Focus on one task at a time. One person at a time.
- Develop a system that let’s you work efficiently by doing one thing at a time. By following what has proven to work for you (or others) in the past, you’ll be able to focus on the customer that is in front of you, while effectively tuning out all the other distractions that are trying to steal your attention.
Application for your business
- Write down the three biggest distractions that have prevented you from giving your customers your undivided attention in the past.
- Write down a simple plan to help you focus your attention completely on a customer when interacting with them. That could mean turning your phone on silent, turning it off, or even going to a remote place where you won’t be interrupted.
Previous tips
1-22. Section 1: Build a relationship with your customers (series)
23-48. Section 2: Make your customers’ lives better (series)
