Management, Human Resources, and Life in a Customer Focused World

One thing that most people don’t think about is how they sound to a customer. Sure, people think about how they sound in terms of professionalism, sales and expertise. That’s not what I’m referring to. I’m talking about how you sound to a customer.

As an example, I was at a drive thru fast food place a few days ago. We weren’t sure what we wanted, so we asked the agent to hold on. She seemed pleasant and friendly. Once we began ordering, we paused and she asked “Is that all?” Within five seconds, my response was “No, we need to add a bottle of water.” At that point, the transaction went down hill. She had apparently already hit total with the preconceived notion that we were done. She began trying to solve her issue and was sighing and frustrated with the machine. The problem, however, was that it SOUNDED as though she was frustrated with us, as the customer. She likely didn’t realize how the sighs, the “ughs”, and general sounds of irritation came across the speakers.

When you’re talking to a customer, think about how the extra stuff sounds to them. Sighs, uh-ohs, noise in the background, peers laughing and talking, etc…these are all things to mentally file and try to make sure that the transaction and interaction are positive, rather than turning negative for no real reason.