One Percenter That Can Make Your Clients and Team Members Feel Valued

What is one thing that you could add to the experience of a team member, or  a client today? What is that small and hardly costs you anything that would really show how much you care?

Story Time

 I’ve got a short story for you. My wife and kids, we head down to the local café which is called The Loose Caboose, a beautiful café in one of the oldest railway stations in Australia. Over the years the business owner and his team have become almost an extension of our family. Since we’ve been there every single day! We see them more than our actual families. And one of the great things is that they’ve really taken a care for our kids.

    It was a couple of months back when one of the baristas decided to draw on the paper cup a little animation. The cup had in it a juice. Every day my son told me, “You get a little juice, a fruit juice of some—like a banana smoothie.” And on the cup, she drew a dog. And it was a real novelty at the time to be like, “Look at this! Look at this little dog!” He was beaming from ear to ear, and he loved it. And he started making dog noises. Then the next day, she drew something else. And then the next day, something else, and something else again, until now it has become a daily habit and ritual, or at least every time that we go in there, there’s a new animation.

     The smallest attention to detail of drawing on the paper cup that he drinks his juice from makes me, as a parent, feel so comfortable in their presence and want to continue coming back because of the care that they provide for me, as an extension of me and my family.

If you’ve got kids, you know how important, how valuable it is if you come and see another health professional for your kid’s health, or if you’re out and about meeting someone new. It is so comforting, as a parent, to see someone else engage, interacting with your kids in a fun, uplifting way. Kids are often shy when they meet someone when you go somewhere different. So, when you’re in an environment where your kids feel totally relaxed and really engaged or stimulated, it’s really pleasing as a parent to see that. And that is what sort of experience that we get when we head along to The Loose Caboose every morning.

And I thought, “It’s just such a simple thing, twenty seconds out of them making us a cup of coffee, to draw on that cup, to add a little ‘Wow!’ to our son.”

Here are some few tips and ideas for that one percenter:

Learn About Customers

Remember small details about your customer and their tendencies. Maybe for your client, it’s remembering a detail about their kids or grandkids, or something like that. Never forget their preferences, whether that be of coffee, colors, etc. It will come handy in coming up with that one percenter you can do to make your customer and your team feel valued.

Get Personal

Make your communication personal but not intrusive. In business and in work settings, building rapport with the people became one of the most important things. It goes from as simple as asking, “How’s your day going?” to “Just let me know if I can do something for you.”

Showing You’re Willing to Go Above & Beyond

This is where you can show that one percenter that would make your team or your client feel valued. Consistent little things can make the day of a person. You can, maybe, leave a personalized note, or arrange a taxi for your client. Maybe it’s even getting your team member a coffee or giving them an encouraging note, giving them something to take home.

So, my question and my challenge for you today is:

What is just one thing that you could do to change the experience of your clients, or a team member, when they come in for their day?

What would be your one percenter?

Share your ideas down the comment section or you can also share your experiences that made you feel valued as a customer.