Whenever Priscilla and I walk into our favorite restaurant in Orlando, Le Coq au Vin, Sandy, the co-owner, greets us with a hug and says she’s happy to see us. We have no doubt that she means it. If we’re with friends, we introduce them, and Sandy seems just as happy to see them, too. She escorts us to our favorite table. At some point, her husband, Reimund, who happens also to be the chef, comes by to say hello and tell us if he’s cooked up anything special that night. Sometimes he’ll send over a bottle of wine—the kind he knows we like. The food is superb, but that alone wouldn’t be enough reason to go back again and again. It’s the special treatment.
Certainly one aspect of delivering excellent service is to find ways to enhance the experience of repeat customers every time you see them, as Le Coq au Vin does for Priscilla and me. But there’s another point to be made: Even a first-time guest can be treated like a VIP customer. In fact, the reason Priscilla and I became frequent guests of this restaurant in the first place was that we were treated as special right from the beginning. I can remember how surprised I was the first time the owners called us by name, remembered where we asked to be seated on our previous visit, and saved that table for us when I made my reservation.
Don’t think this applies only to high-end restaurants. Someone recently told me a story about a visit to his neighborhood coffee shop. The group ahead of him on line was taking a lot of time making up their minds about their order. My friend started to get impatient. Then he spotted a woman behind the counter waving him over. When he got there, she handed him his usual drink—a large decaf cappuccino. He was astonished. He didn’t think anyone would remember his face, let alone his usual order. He told me he’ll be going to that coffee shop a lot more often now. We all like to be treated as though we’re special, and great businesses fulfill that need for every customer who walks through their doors. Not long ago, I walked in cold to a Verizon Wireless retail store. I’d been dissatisfied with my cell phone provider and thought I’d check out an alternative. The woman who took care of me, Angela Pak, was so upbeat, knowledgeable, and totally focused that I still remember her name. She steered me to just the right device, and she gave me all the time I needed to make up my mind. Largely because of Angela’s attentive service, I switched carriers, even though it was going to cost me a couple of hundred bucks to get out of my previous contract. The key was that she homed in on what I needed from a phone and quickly found a way to satisfy that need.
You’d be surprised how easy it is to learn something unique about a customer and use the knowledge to make that person feel special. The clue might come from something a man is wearing, or a woman’s accent, or someone’s body language and tone of voice, or the magazine a person is carrying, or a snatch of conversation that tells you a couple is in that city for the first time or that one of them is really in the mood for dessert or a glass of champagne. Close observation can also reveal a customer’s underlying mood. Is he or she impatient or in a hurry? If so, make an extra effort to serve him or her more quickly. Worried? Take the extra time to address his or her concerns. Depressed? Maybe offer a compliment or tell a light joke to boost his or her mood. Those moods may have nothing to do with you or the interaction the customer is having with your company, but if you are tuned in to them, they can reveal how that individual customer wants to be treated.
In short, do whatever you can to make regular customers feel like family and new customers feel like regulars. Remember the theme song from the TV series Cheers? Don’t you want to go “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”? Make all your customers feel that you’re really glad they came. Because no matter what anyone says, when it comes to service, familiarity does not breed contempt, it breeds repeat business.