Creative Customer Service

My friend works as an ER Nurse in a bustling hospital in San Diego. One night, a man with a broken hip was admitted and placed in my friend’s section. Throughout the busy night, the patient kept buzzing the nurses to come in to itch his legs and feet since he could not reach them. This took a lot of time away from other patients for each nurse. My friend however, decided to take several tongue depressors and tape them together to make a scratcher for him. The patient thought this was fantastic and could now scratch away on his own time and the rest of the ER team could focus on saving lives.

Hearing this story, while humorous, made me realize just how important it is to be creative with customers. Personalizing the experience not only is effective but also memorable. Your business then becomes a not so run of the mill, get in-get out operation and people remember this. In our current world of automation, this personal touch becomes more and more important on a regular basis.This is all very similar to my other post of “Raise the Roof: A Short Analysis of the “On the House” Concept“.

When I worked at Starbucks, I recall drawing flowers, hearts, stars, animals or happy faces on customer’s cups along with their names. While some people didn’t notice, there were those that did notice and upon returning to the store, would say “You’re the girl who draws the smile on my cup–makes my day with every sip!”

But being creative also means being flexible with customers, such as with custom pricing plans tailored for their needs, special configurations and manual adjustments on accounts.

So, I guess I’m writing this to help encourage you to be creative and flexible with your customers. How are you doing this today? I’d love to hear your stories!