Make Your Mark

by Jocelyn K. Glei

Think about all the tone-deaf customer service interactions you’ve had. The ones where you were treated like a stepping-stone to profit rather than an actual human. The tech support person telling you to restart your computer as he reads a script, the airline attendant throwing up her hands and telling you, “There’s nothing I can do,” the bureaucrat refusing to even consider your problem until you’ve filled out all the right forms. Chances are you only interact with companies like these when you have no other choice. And that’s why they’re not going to last. Because they forgot that the person standing in front of them is the reason they have a job in the first place, and that listening to that person and making his life easier should be priority #1. Your customer is someone who spends hours at his or her job away from friends and family to earn a paycheck. One of the things they choose to do with part of that paycheck is willingly give it to you, a complete stranger that they will likely never meet, because that thing you make is just so great they think the trade-off is worth it. Your job? Instill enough trust and respect in the customer that they are willing to make that leap. And then do it again. And again.