Customers Always Love Appreciation.

When was the last time someone made a special effort to make you feel important and special when you were buying from them? Can you remember? I often ask that question in my seminars and sadly, many people cannot remember the last time it happened. So, here’s a more important question: If I asked your customers when was the last time you made them feel important and special, would they be able to remember?

In the mid-90s, I was working for a staffing company in Lancaster County, PA. My specialty was the printing industry, but the office in which I worked also handled temporary administrative positions as well. One Friday afternoon at about 4:30 PM, a woman with whom I’d never spoken before called in and said that she was on her way to the office to pick up her paycheck, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get there before 5 PM when we closed. I assured her that I would wait until she got there to make sure that she got her paycheck that day.

Many other temporary employees came in that same day to pick up their checks. I didn’t know most of them and many of them were very gruff and unfriendly. But all of a sudden, a pleasant, young woman came into the office. She was well-dressed and looked as if she had been working in an office all day.  She said that she was the one who called about her paycheck. While I would have stayed for any of those employees if they needed me to, I could tell that this woman truly appreciated that I waited for her.

A year later, she came into my office at a new location and mentioned that she was working on opening a school. Unfortunately, the school never opened because the person for whom she was working turned out to be a fraud. Naturally, she was disillusioned and looking for another job. I asked her if she’d ever consider working with me in staffing. Fortunately, she agreed. To this day, she has become the finest recruiter I’ve ever met. She is also gone on to run two businesses of her own and she is also one of my most successful coaching clients and dearest friends.

If you make a customer feel important and special, I can’t guarantee that you will get the same results.   I can guarantee you that if you ignore your customers’ need for appreciation, they will soon become someone else’s customers. I had no idea that waiting an extra 15 minutes that Friday afternoon could turn into such an extraordinary relationship for more than 25 years. The point is, if you do it all the time, eventually you’re going to be rewarded for treating your customers like gold.

“Here’s a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.” – Nelson Boswell

Let me hear from you.

This excerpt is taken from the seminar entitled The Psychology of Selling I: Think like a Customer. I encourage you to click here to register for my live in person The Psychology of Selling I: Think like a Customer seminar on Thursday, November 2, 2023 from 9 AM to 12 noon Eastern Standard Time at the Comfort Suites in Manheim, PA. This event will also be available through live streaming.