A few years ago I had made an appointment with my doctor and I specifically asked for the last appointment of the day. After I checked in, a woman in faded pink scrubs beckoned me to follow her to the exam room. She forced a smile as she told me someone would be with me soon. I knew that “soon” usually meant 30 minutes, so I sat in a chair and began to read. I could hear the nurses talking in the hallway and doors opening and closing. It seemed as if I wasn’t the only one with a late afternoon appointment. Thirty minutes turned into 45 and I noticed that things had become awfully quiet outside my door. I decided to open the door of the exam room to flag down a nurse to see what the hold-up was. Imagine my surprise when I found that the lights were off! I sheepishly called out, “Hello? Is anyone there?” No response. I spoke louder as I said, “Hello? Did you forget about me?” The office manager with keys in hand and her coat buttoned looked my direction and our eyes met. I was hoping for a look of concern. But, she slammed her keys on the counter and said, “You’re lucky the doctor hasn’t left yet.”

How you treat your last customer of the day says it all. It defines you and your organization.

1) Do you turn on your after-hours answering service early?
2) Do you purposely avoid answering the phone at the end of the day?
3) Do you rush customers off the phone, even at the cost of a sale, because setting up a new service would mean that you won’t be done at 5:00?
4) Do you have customers in the office when you start turning off lights and shutting down the office?
5) Have you set the hours you are available to take customer calls according to customer need, or employee wishes?

Start 2012 with a new focus on customer service by evaluating the number of after-hours messages you have waiting for you when you come into the office each day. If you have more than a handful, it means your hours of operation are not meeting your customer’s needs. Consider staggering the work hours of your customer service staff, if you haven’t done so already. Make it a privilege to be the person entrusted to care for the 1st customers of the day and the very last customers of the day. Can you assign a front parking spot for those CSRs who fulfill these roles? Small perks like that reinforce the importance of serving our customers.
This week, I was the last customer of the day once again.

I stopped into a local small business at 7:45 and noticed the sign on the door said they closed at 8:00. The service that I needed was going to take some time. There was no irritation or impatience from the small business owners. They chose to wait on me with the same exuberance and attention that they would have given if I had been their first customer of the day. They have earned my loyalty.