“Oh… you’re OK.”
It’s a good phrase to comfort a child who has had a scrape. It is not a good phrase to use on your customer!

Yesterday I was with a friend at lunch – we were nearly finished with our meal when an employee entered the room vacuuming. He came closer and closer to our table when I decided to relocate with the remainder of our food and drinks to another part of the restaurant and escape the racket. I said to the waitress that we were moving out of the way of the vacuuming. She said “Oh… you’re OK.” Really? I didn’t waste time clarifying that it wasn’t about us interfering with the vacuum it was about the vacuuming interfering with our conversation and the lunch we were paying for! Lunch here is $15/plate plus gratuity and beverages.

15 minutes later we were finishing our conversation and beverages and the vacuum started closing in on us again!
This time I spoke to the employee with the vacuum and said we were moving out of his way. Of course he too said “Oh… you’re OK.”

A top notch user experience and customer service is simple. It is all about how it makes your customer feel. With feeling as a starting point, customer service and experience becomes about fine tuning within the constraint of cost.

Why is this so illusive to so many companies and businesses? Why don’t companies and businesses aspire to a heart felt  customer service and experience? 

Efficiency and a heart felt experience are not mutually exclusive.