Act Professional...Talk Friendly

When I used to work as an Area Manager overseeing the daily valet parking operations at two major medical facilities in Lima, Ohio I would run into problems with our team members NOT wanting to use the "scripted" greetings as required by our company.

You know, "Good morning, my name is Jim, welcome to blah blah blah, how can I be of service to you today?" And not just getting these teenagers to actually say the script, but to say it with some sort of enthusiasm and have it come off real at the same time. For a while we struggled, but then I heard Jeffrey Gitomer say that when we are interacting with our clients/customers we are always told by "Corporate" or "Management" to talk PROFESSIONAL...but no one listens to you when you talk professional! So Gitomer advised to ACT professional but TALK friendly. Genius!

I began coaching our team members on this philosophy, keep to the script but keep it real and have fun. If it sounds canned, no one is going to hear you and most likely they are going to just turn off their ears...you could tell them they were about to step on a mine and they would just keep walking because you sound lame. The interesting thing is that our customer interaction and engagement went up tremendously and the positive ratings on our scorecards/reviews went up as well! Just goes to show you, people like people who are genuine in their work. So remember, when you are going to talk with your big customer, ACT professional but TALK friendly!