Fiesty Service: Prescription for Gloomy Times

Did you hear the story about the woman who had a parakeet named Pretty Boy?  Over the years she taught Pretty Boy to sing many songs.  One day she ordered a new vacuum cleaner.  It came with a tube attachment she thought perfectly suited to vacuum out Pretty Boy's bird cage.  You know where this story is going!  The phone rang one day in the middle of vacuuming and Pretty Boy ended up in the vacuum cleaner bag!

She panicked!  Tearing open the bag she found the parakeet alive but covered with dust, dirt and soot.  She rushed the bird to the bathtub and turned on the faucet, almost drowning Pretty Boy!  Realizing the error of her solution, she grabbed the hair dryer to blow dry the drenched bird!

A few days later at a church social the editor of the local newspaper heard of her catastrophe and sent a reporter around to get this unique human-interest story.  As the reporter was about to leave at the end of his interview, he asked the woman, "By the way, how's Pretty Boy doing now?" 

"Pretty Boy doesn't sing anymore," she said.  "He just sorta sits and stares!"

We live in times of turbulence and anxiety.  Customers who use to "sing songs" are daily traumatized by dreary news, unemployed loved one, and just plain old scary uncertainty.  Some end up like Pretty Boy..."sitting and staring."  However, spirited service can be a powerful remedy to their gloom created by "life's uncertainties."

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."  The oft quoted line is typically misinterpreted to favor some macho sentiment.  The real meaning has nothing to do with being strong and everything to do with being feisty.   Feisty is a never-say-die resilience; boldly standing up when all around you are timidly hunkering down.  Feisty is the manifestation of spirit, passion and energy.  

Feisty is the source of initiative, drive and growth.  It gets people out of bed and off to work early despite the dour news on the tube.  It turns sleep walking, indifferent service people into joy carriers.  It puts a smile on their face and a skip in their step--even in moments of doubt.   Customers have always loved feisty service-service with spirit and enthusiasm.  Today's customers need feisty service!

Customers Need "Singers"

"Singers" are the joyful brand of feisty.  Their enthusiasm is so apparent their style and spirit meet you before they do.  You notice their glowing smile, their eager-to-serve gait, and their gusto that infects every person  within earshot with a robust case of the grins.   "Singers" make customers feel confident about the parts of the service encounter they sometimes do not understand.  The mechanic under the hood might speak 'internal combustion," but his or her upbeat confidence helps us trust that our transmission was treated with TLC. 

Customers Need "Closers"

"Closers" are the version of feistiness that gets things done.  Customers too often witness employees who focus only on doing their task without regard to the customer's objective.   As long as they can "check the box" that their part of the service chain was done, they are indifferent to the overall result.  They observe service people who take no proper risks and exercise no supportive initiative.  Feisty people, on the other hand, care about outcomes, not about check-lists.   Activity is a means to an end, not an end in itself.  Procedures are guidelines for accomplishment, not the goal of their toil.

Customers Need "Investors"

"Investors" are the flavor of feisty that contributes to others' emotional bank accounts as a deposit, not as a debt.  They give for the sheer pleasure of giving, not with an tat expectation of a return.   With each investment, they seed confidence and hope.  They make customers feel a sense of worth-"I must be valuable since they are investing in me."   "Investors" go the extra mile at times customers expect them to act Scrooge-like.  They derive their optimism from a belief they are pilots of their destiny and not a passenger on someone else's ride.  Consequently, there is nothing counterfeit about their cheerfulness or fake about their encouragement.  Customers don't need someone to cheerfully make them feel better about being weak; they need someone who can sincerely help them feel strong. 

Scottish explorer W.H. Murray wrote, "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.  ...the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred."  Today's customers are longing for feisty people who are committed to delivering a remarkable customer experience.