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Glenn Shepard's "'Work Is Not for Sissies!"

 

 

Ever Feel Unappreciated as a Customer?

 

by Glenn Shepard

November 24, 2009

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“Great customer service requires more than giving customers what they expect. It requires looking for  and seizing  opportunities to help customers, even when it’s not expected.”


— Glenn Shepard
 

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Ask Glenn
 

Dear Glenn,   

Are we required to provide paid breaks for our employees?

Susan in Rochester, Minnesota

 

Dear Susan,

The last I checked, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Nevada and Washington require a paid 10-minute rest period for each four consecutive hours of work. Minnesota requires "a paid adequate rest period for each four consecutive hours of work to utilize the nearest convenient restroom," although they don't specify how long the break must be.

      However, this is more of a practical matter than a legality.

I recommend that you give a paid 15-minute rest break for each four hours worked, regardless of whether it's required by law.

        Thanks for your question.

Glenn In Nashville
 

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Last week my beautiful bride went down to a local bank branch to make a large deposit in preparation for buying the new house.

 

We were out of deposit slips, so she met with Linda*, the branch manager, and asked her to order more. She then presented Linda with the large check and asked her to make the deposit.

 

We specifically wanted Linda to handle the deposit because we did not want to risk having an 18-year-old teller who’s been working there for two weeks make a mistake.

 

Over the past few months, two of the banks we deal with have made mistakes, and my bookkeeper at work made an $11,466 error I told you about.

 

We had found the perfect house that’s a foreclosure we could get for $100,000 less than appraisal. But the money needed to be in the account the minute I got back in town so we could pounce on the deal, and there was no margin for error.

 

When asked to make the deposit, Linda agreed to do so but then discovered that she had no deposit slips in her desk. She told my beautiful bride to go over to one of the teller windows and they would have deposit slips.

 

WRONG ANSWER!

 

While there was technically nothing wrong with that, Linda should have gone to get the deposit slips herself.

 

Great customer service requires more than giving customers what they expect. It requires looking for — and seizing — opportunities to help customers, even when it’s not expected.

 

The great irony is that this bank recently categorized us as “VIP clients” (their term, not mine) and assigned us a private banker.

 

We have access to a private branch in an office building near Vanderbilt University that the general public doesn’t have access to.

 

There are rarely lines at the private branch, and even when there are, they’re short and are sometimes made up of country music stars or Tennessee Titans. They even keep the branch open late to accommodate the schedules of their VIP clients.

 

When she knows we’re coming in, our private banker sometimes wines and dines us (technically, breakfast at Shoney’s and carrot cake at J. Alexander’s).

 

Knowing that we're private banking clients, I would have expected Linda to jump at the opportunity to make that large deposit (she’s done it for me twice before).

 

And especially since I gave her a copy of my #1 international best seller, How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without, in which I wrote “You are your company to the public”.

 

Based on my estimation of the distance from Linda’s desk to the teller windows, she was getting $1,000 per foot to make that walk.

 

But it shouldn’t have mattered whether the deposit was for $5 or $50,000.

 

It shouldn’t have mattered whether the client was the wife of a best selling author, or the wife of Joe Sixpack.

 

While it’s understandable that they can’t take every customer to lunch, EVERY customer deserves to be treated like a VIP.

 

EVERY employee of every company that interacts with customers should seize every opportunity to make customers feel appreciated.

 

So on that note, I want you to know how much I appreciate you.

 

Whether you spent $10 or $10,000 with my company this year, you are a VIP, and you will always be treated as such.

 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll see you again next week.

 

Glenn Shepard

 

 

 

*Not her real name

 

 

 

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