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Good Service Is More Than a Smile

(Photo courtesy of Coach Cynthia)

Teach your people to smile at guests and they’ll say you’ve got a nice staff. But is that really customer service?



For awhile, I thought we only had this problem in Asia. You know, service staff who smile and nod. What you want is fast and proactive service; what they give is a smile.  Though at first the smile buys them some of your patience, after a few repeated mistakes, the same smile becomes an annoying symbol of uselessness.



It turns out this is not just an Asian thing. 



A famous author and speaker told us of his service horror story during our past conference in Barcelona.  He waited five hours for a room in a 5-star hotel and another one hour for his luggage to be brought up. He kept looking around the lobby and he saw lots of service staff.  Lots of them! And they were all smiling.  Every half hour, one of them would come up to him to ask: “Are you OK? Do you need anything?”



But they just didn’t get it. There was just one thing he needed: a room.




I’m now in Tennessee for our conference and I hear similar things.  Great smile and polite gestures, but at the end of the day, where’s the solution to my problem? Would you rather have the stereotypical New Yorker way of doing it?  No smile, no courtesy, but a quick solution?  Or do we really have to choose? Can’t we just have the best of both worlds?



Dear Customer Service Professionals wherever you are, this blog’s for you.



Customers want to be delighted, not just served. Don’t get me wrong; the smile helps. Now let’s take it one step further. What about getting things done faster than expected? It takes not only great people but also great systems behind operations. And if you’ve got that, let’s take it even one step further. What about anticipating what we need and giving it to us before we ask?  Now that’s a WOW factor! 



Readers, let’s give some input for the customer service professionals reading this.  Don’t be emotional; don’t get nasty. Just keep it to the plain and honest truth. How do YOU define good service? What kind of service would you tell your friends about? 



Let’s all chip in to create a better standard of service everywhere. 


Coach Cynthia

Firm Owner, ActionCOACH 




Coach Cynthia is a thought leader and owns an ActionCOACH Business Coaching franchise that helps businesses increase customer service by looking at the people and systems approach.  For more information, click here.

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