Service with a smile

I am proud to say I was responsible for making this little person smile. Over the bank holiday weekend, I volunteered for the local Marble Slab ice cream parlor, in Dundee's Overgate shopping centre. Working in the shop offering facepainting to customers and children I was also able to observe firsthand the standard of service delivery. Marble Slab ice cream is homemade and customers choose from fresh fruits, nuts, sweets and cookies to mix into their ice cream. The service experience begins when you walk in the door and smell waffles and strawberries. Customers are greeted with 'scoopers' who genuinely smile and talk to each customer individually. Customer service is an integral part of this company’s value proposition.

From the point of view of an overall service effort, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. This weekend reminded me how important it is to form relationships with customers – a relationship that individual customers feels that he/she would like to pursue.

They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people. I definitely noticed. Did you?