How Are You Wowing Donors With a Smile?

I am a student of customer service. And I love wonderful customer service.

That is what keeps me returning to my neighborhood Chick-fil-A on what for my waistline and budget are too many mornings.

Yes, I am a fan of those biscuits. But what I really return for is the service.

At my local store it is different. I have another Chick-fil-A that I frequent regularly, and it is different. Very different. Not bad — I think that the company does a great job with customer service and cleanliness.

But at the store I frequent there is high energy among the employees. It is rare — very rare — that I get up to empty my own tray or that I have not been offered multiple refills on my coffee. Ah — so feeding that addiction might be another reason I return.

The other morning I realized the efforts that go behind what I see as customer service magic. A manager was meeting with every team member as each came on shift, giving praise for something good that employee had been doing and then outlining in very specific detail what he or she would be doing — what to say — and in what manner.

I experience the same phenomenon in a church I attend. It is part of a national partnership, and there is a formula — with most often video sermons shown from the "home church." There are two affiliates that I attend both with the same formula.

However, in one, I can sneak in without being greeted more than once. In the other, there are strategically placed volunteers where each and every Sunday I am greeted five times — minimum — before I am seated. There is high energy, and it makes such a difference.

Whether it be daily customer service - donor or prospective donor attention, service at an event, a board or committee meeting, a staff meeting — what are you doing to create that wow factor of customer service?