You know I’m big on serving your way to success. No matter what business you’re in – no matter if you’re an employee, the boss, or you’re starting up an online venture from your house – overserving your customers and exceeding their expectations is the best way to win.

If your customers are pleasantly surprised at your great product/service and the way you treated them they will go out and tell their friends about it. More people will buy your stuff. Everybody wins. Pretty simple, right?

You’d be surprised how many people don’t understand that.

My family and I went to a beautiful little beach town last weekend. We were hungry and found a cute, small restaurant for lunch. The food was great. The atmosphere was great. But, I will never tell anyone to go there because the service was lousy.

I worked as a waiter in college. Because I know how hard that job can be, and how bad some customers can be, I go out of my way to tip well and be super nice to the wait staff every time I eat out. I flash a big smile. I ask how they are. I’m friendly. I’m respectful. It usually works out great and about 99% of the time I have great service at restaurants.

But our waitress was surly. First, she didn’t want to take our order. (I understand that when it’s busy, but it wasn’t.) Then, she was rude to my wife while she was ordering, and seemed disturbed that my daughter asked some questions about the menu. She was really slow on our drink order. I was thinking, does she realize she’s working for a tip here?

“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.
–T.Allesandra

Finally, when the check came she had overcharged us by $2.00. When I pointed this out to her she said, “Well, it’s only $2.00.”

Wait, that’s your answer to overcharging a customer?

It’s not about the amount, when you’re wrong you should admit it and fix it for the customer. An apology would have been nice as well. But you could tell she was mad at me for pointing out her mistake. Wow.

I have a hard time understanding why people act that way to the customers who make their business succeed or fail. Did she think her attitude and actions made me want to come back again?

You may not be a waitress, but the way you serve people will determine how successful you become. How do you serve your customers? If you don’t have direct contact with the customers how do you treat your coworkers and your boss? They are your customers. If you overserve them and exceed their expectations the sky is the limit.

Action Steps:

1. Get clear on who your customers are.
2. Brainstorm how you can overserve them and exceed their expectations.
3. Try out some of those ideas on your customers and build on the ones that get the best responses.
4. Don’t be like my waitress. Have a great attitude. Smile. Have fun!

I want to give as many people as possible my free eBook, 5 Steps to Finding Your Purpose. Please forward this to a friend who needs it. If they click here, they can get the free eBook.

Let’s GO!