I’m sitting on a bus as I write this, on my way to a meeting, and an elderly couple just came and sat down next to me and they were commenting on how lovely it was to have a very happy pleasant driver on the bus today. They were quite right, he was indeed very friendly and kind. They said they almost felt compelled to get in touch with the bus service owners to let them know about the friendly customer service provided by todays bus driver!

I thought to myself though how funny it is that the friendliness of the bus driver is something that’s even worth noticing. I would have thought it’s the sort of thing that you just expect should be normal behaviour for a bus driver. Indeed the fact that it was so unusual to have a nice driver worthy of comment says a lot about the normal customer support standards on the bus route!

The comments from the old couple about other drivers included “sometimes they don’t even say good morning” and “they just grunt at you like it’s too much trouble that they had to stop for us” and “some are OK and nice enough, but today’s was really lovely”

The attitude of a simple good morning or even a smile makes such a difference. It’s also infectious, imagine how many peoples days will be improved by our customers driver today? What’s the ripple effect of that too? Will those people have a slightly better day? Will they maybe greet the next person they meet with a slightly brighter smile? How many people will go on to tell the story about how pleasant the bus driver was?

I mean I’m writing a blog about him for goodness sake! I’m even going to encourage you to consider the way your business interacts with its customers, and thus this bus driver will have had a huge influence on the world far outside any one he could ever have imagined…

A good attitude towards your customers costs absolutely nothing and can reap huge benefits. How are YOUR staff greeting your customers? Is it with a cheery smile and a friendly good morning/afternoon? Why not do some “secret shopper” testing and just get a friend to phone or drop in to ask for an appointment and give you feedback!

At DiaryBooker we spend quite a bit of time phoning businesses who have taken out our 14 day free trial, and it’s shocking how many of those appointment based businesses we end up leaving voice mails for and even more shocking are those where you can’t even tell if you have phoned the correct number! Perhaps you could consider using a phone answering service, or at least make sure the answer machine answers the phone in a happy friendly tone and mentions your company name!

Now, go forth and provide some lovely friendly customer service! 😀

PS As I got off the bus I thanked the driver for his cheery nature and he shook my hand and thanked me back, as I did this a queue other passengers started building up behind me, all of whom also wanted to thank him for the friendly customer service! Turns out he is originally from Uganda… what a lovely immigrant to have contributing in such a positive way to our country!