Derek Sivers
from the book “Anything You Want”:

Every interaction is your moment to shine

2014-07-02

Probably only 1% of your potential customers ever bother to contact you. So when they do, it’s your time to shine.

Three minutes spent talking with them is going to shape their impression of your company more than your name, price, design, or features all combined. This is your shining moment to be the best you can be — to blow them away with how cool it was to contact you.

If your customer service is taught to be efficient, it sends the message, “I don’t really want to talk with you. Let’s make this quick.” Do the opposite. Take a few inefficient minutes to get to know anyone who contacts you.

When a musician would call to sell their music, we’d take a few minutes up-front to get to know them. Like, “What’s your name? Hi Reza. Got a website? Is that you on the home page? Cool. Is that a real Les Paul? Sweet! Here, let me listen to a bit of the music. Nice, I like what you’re doing. Very syncopated. Great groove. Anyway… what would you like to know?”

Musicians find it very hard to get anyone to listen to their music. So when someone takes even a couple minutes to listen to it, it’s so touching that they remember it for life.

Imagine what you’d do if your favorite rock star called. You’d drop everything, and give them all the time in the world. So that’s how you should treat everyone that contacts your company.

Why not? You don’t have time? Make time. It’s how everyone deserves to be treated.

It makes life better. It makes work more fun. And it’s the right thing to do.