Page 5 - JUNE 2022

Upon returning home and after Daniel Goleman has become the or advice have trickled down to the
ordering the item online at the current leading go-to person on “emotional majority of those in sales including
price, my husband conducted some intelligence”. He springboards upon customer service.
further investigation specific to online the work of Howard Gardner who was Think about a recent sales or cus-
ordering and the veteran discount. researching other bits of intelligence. tomer service experience as the buyer
He learned he could now order online Even though some sales experts or or as the seller. The basic definition of
with his military discount. When keynote speakers are focused on emotional intelligence in any com-
we returned to the store to have the emotions, I don’t believe those words munication scenario is listening to
veteran’s discount applied, the cus-
tomer service person knew all about
veterans ordering online and having
the discount. Talk about poor commu-
nication and inconsistent procedures!
The result was the surfacing of more
negative emotions.
These recent experiences had me
wondering about how others defined
customer service. I happened across
this newly evolved definition, “the
support you offer your customers –
both before and after they buy and use
your products or services…delivering
proactive and immediate support to
customers anytime on the channel of
their choice” (Source Salesforce.com).
What was even more insightful
were the words of Seth Godin who
stated, “the only purpose of customer
service is to change feelings.” If we
believe people buy on emotions first,
supported by logic, then both defi-
nitions would make for exceptional
customer service experiences. These
exceptional services have their root in
positive feelings.
Being somewhat curious, I
“Googled” the phrase “how to gen-
erate more sales.” Beyond the paid
advertisements, all of which were
technology or social media related,
the next few results all returned to
the common actions of increasing
the number of customers, stating
your value proposition, raising
your prices, showcasing your full
potential, standing out, focusing
on existing customers, requesting
customer feedback, etc. Not one of
these sales sites mentioned the words
feelings or emotions. Possibly these
sites and experts presumed people
knew that sales were the transference
of feelings. However, I sincerely doubt
that presumption is accurate given
my numerous decades in sales and
consequently customer service.

NBIZ ■ June 2022 5