As readers of this blog may know that I am a fan of Seth Godin’s work.
In a recent post on his blog he wrote a short, yet insightful, post about the purpose of customer service. His thesis is that
‘The only purpose of customer service is to change feelings’
and the best way to measure how you are doing in that respect is to measure whether after the interaction with your customer they would recommend you to a friend.
I support both his points and would add one thing to reinforce the idea that customer service is all about feeling.
The best to describe this is to use a quote, a quote that I use a lot and I may have shared it with you on this blog before. But, I believe, it bears repeating. Also, Stefan, the owner of this blog really likes this one too
People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.
I think that the reason that this is important and we should pay attention to it is all to do with how our brain works. In human memory terms the left side of our brain is generally associated with facts, figures, logic and our short-term memory. But, it is the right side of our brain that is associated with colours, emotions, memories and our long-term memory. That is why people will always (or they will more likely) remember how you made them feel.
Is your customer service changing feelings and creating good memories?