Anyone that knows me really well know that bad customer service is a huge pet peeve of mine.  It breaks my heart every time I roll into a drive thru and see our babies without any type of work ethic and could care less about providing good customer service.  If they get your order wrong and you send it back for a replacement, you better say an extra prayer over your food.

 There have been a few that have surprised me and have taken their job seriously and delivered top notch service.  However, what’s unfortunate is the greater percentage that I have experienced and others alike is the tragedy of a generation of kids with no actionable skills to progress them further in their career or life in general.

What most may not realize is that the main component of customer service is psychology!  Yep, plain old psychology.  Psychology is defined as “the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.”  Now think about this for a minute.  You have two main points in this definition, the human mind and affected behavior.  To get to the point, customer service basically boils down to how you make someone feel about something.

Have you noticed that Walmart’s employee’s do not wear those smocks any more that says, “How May I Help You?”  Raise your hand if you receive great customer service here all the time?  Okay, moving on……

When you go into a store, restaurant, hotel, car dealership, etc., at the end of the day, it’s all about how that business or service made you feel.  The service can be superior, mediocre or just outright bad, but it’s all about how they made you feel that determines whether you will give them your service again or at all.

The main point of this post is to drive home to those of us who are either in the business of servicing others in some type of capacity whether it is for work, church, volunteering, etc., you are in charge of your customer’s experience.  You get to be a significant part of the determination on whether that person will come back again.

Take the time to not only provide superior customer service, but also demand it.  This is the only way it will get better.

Please encourage your teenagers who are working part time jobs for the first time to care about what they do on their jobs.  It doesn’t matter if they are working fast food, custodian, bank teller, or interning at a law firm, teach them work ethic and how to take pride in doing the best and being the best. Some people actually got their biggest breaks at young ages where someone took them under their wing because of potential they saw in them at an early age working at some place like McDonalds and set them up for a great future.

To my entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs, pay special attention to who you hire and how you want to brand your business.

Remember that the human mind and affected behavior all boils down to basic psychology and the experience that is provided.  It can truly make or break your business.

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