Simply the best...

I recently posted a favorite quote of mine by Alan Turing… “Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine”. 

During my travels last week, I encountered 2 individuals delivering exceptional customer experiences. They weren’t reading from a ‘strategic script’.   They didn’t need a journey map.  And they weren’t using the latest technology be it BOTS, a CRM or chat.  No, they were delivering a customer experience from the heart.  They were genuine. They were real and they were focused on each individual customer.  

The first was the agent I encountered as I returned my rental car at National Newark Airport.  I was greeted promptly, asked how the car was and asked ‘if the all-around customer service’ was satisfactory to me. As I exited the car return area – two more agents greeted me with a smile, thanked me for my business and asked if I needed directions to the terminal.  INCREDIBLE! 

The second was my stop at Popeye’s on the ‘B’ Concourse of Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.  Yes, Popeye’s is just one of my many vices. When I fly through ATL, I stop at Popeye’s as often as I can.  I was greeted by one of the employees asking me if I needed a table and what I wanted to drink.  He directed me to the order desk, met me (and other patrons) at the check-out and directed us to a cleaned table with a drink ready.  AMAZING! 

Never I had imagined that just a few days after posting that quote, I would encounter these individuals doing just as the quote says – delivering an exceptional customer experience without a lot of fanfare, without a lot of praise – just doing what they do best. 

Too often, in my opinion, we overlook the obvious when it comes to customer experience.  We can build the strategies and create the journeys but often it comes down to one person delivering an experience to one customer.  It is as I’ve commented in previous blogs still a one-to-one relationship.  And that experience is delivered by engaged, committed employees who work in an environment that rewards them for delivering that experience day in and day out. 

Thank you to the millions of people who deliver on an organization’s customer experience.  The maps and strategies are meaningless without them!