A friend of mine was asked how it was possible for her to be happy at work every day. She responded by saying, “I am paid to smile!” What a refreshingly simple concept!

Do you remember when you were interviewed for the job?
I bet you were all smiles then! Employers don’t intentionally hire people with sour dispositions to interact with their customers or to build morale within the office. But, somewhere along the way you gave yourself permission to be grumpy. Maybe it was just for one day, at first.

Did you know that if you smile
 People will perceive you to be more confident and

Thoughtful, Value Added Customer Service

In today’s economy price may be king, but value for the money someone is willing to spend is like the crown on the king’s head! Your company may provide a service or product that is priced right and fills a need or want for that customer, but what can you do to make sure that you are more than a better price? That you become so valuable to your customers that you are like the air they breathe or the water they drink? You can provide thoughtful, value added customer service. You can provide your service or product, and then some.
Adding extra

I recently had a conversation with two customer service professionals regarding their behavior and thoughts towards customers. I happened to catch one of them placing a customer on hold and blurting out an obscenity. I could hear rage in his voice and thought something terrible was happening in his personal life that would warrant such an outburst. I was alarmed as I asked what the problem was and dumbfounded as he gave his explanation. As he explained it, the customer was purposely being stupid and lying to him. As we talked through the situation, it was obvious that he had made many assumptions

As someone who travels often, I have come to expect some bumps along the way when it comes to customer service. To get from point A to point B, I need to interact with at least a dozen customer service agents from different companies. By the time I get to my room at the hotel I am exhausted not only from the travel itself, but from trying to uplift all the lifeless customer service representatives. I greet them with a smile- they greet me with a blank expression. I thank them for their help and they say nothing in return. This has become such a pattern that I almost missed a very special

I was at the local Wal-Mart deli the other day and found myself waiting for a good five minutes before someone noticed I was standing there. Let me correct myself, before they ACKNOWLEDGED that I was standing there. The workers were busy avoiding me and kept their distance from the counter. They did all they could to avoid making eye contact. I finally caught the attention of an older lady who reluctantly made her way over to me and asked how she could help. As I gave her my order for honey ham, I noticed another customer waiting patiently too. The workers were busy at avoiding her too.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of providing training on personality for a group of prison workers. Using actors, I had created a skit to introduce the different personality types. We had our smarmy salesman, an artsy department head, a chronic complainer, a conservative accountant and a dictator. The goal of the skit was to show how the characters’ differences were tearing them apart so that I could then train them on how to use those differences for better results. The audience was able to laugh at the wild approaches the artsy department head offered to the team while fending off bad