Why Danijela surprised me

How Micro Moments with Customers Make the Decisive Difference - Or When Coffee is Served Differently. Performance researcher Gabriel Schandl hits the nail on the head.

  It's Saturday morning, I'm at an international speaker congress in Phoenix, Arizona, and still slightly sleepy I stagger to the café within the huge hotel, where I already got a delicious cappuccino yesterday. Some others are already standing in front of me, also waiting for the dark pick-me-up in the morning. When it's my turn, I am surprised by a sentence I was not prepared for: "Good morning, Gabriel!" I look at the lady behind the bar in surprise and ask her how she knows my name. She said I was already there yesterday and she remembers because she wrote my name on my cup. Wow. What a small thing and yet such a beautiful moment early in the morning. Danijela is from Serbia. She has been living in the USA for 14 years. And she surprised me this morning. With a simple "Good morning, Gabriel!" and an expectant smile. The coffee from the world's largest coffee roaster was already good, but this brief contact made it even better. We need these small yet significant moments in dealing with customers, because they set us apart. From the rest, from the competition, from everyone else. It’s a people business! People want to be noticed, especially in our digital age with increasingly interchangeable products and services. What is not interchangeable and therefore unique is the human being and their encounters with others. How do we shape these moments? How do they shape our employees? Only motivated and friendly personalities are willing to surprise customers and guests. With small gestures. But these are sufficient. Do the leaders empower the employees to give their best? Or are they more like killjoys? The momentum in everyday life should not be prescribed but should be lived. And only if it is authentic, it invites imitation, in the spirit of the quote: “I can't hear your words, your actions are so loud.” This also applies in a broader sense to the entire company: Forget customer-oriented phrases developed by agencies on walls. Only what is lived every day counts. And for that, it takes the best: employees as well as leaders. We assume that the product or service is already brilliant. About the Author: Gabriel Schandl is an economist. As a curious success scout, passionate keynote speaker, and dedicated business coach, he is a collector and implementer of best practice examples. The Constantinus Award winner is an author and teaches social skills at the Puch-Urstein University of Applied Sciences. He is the originator of the term and concept of "performance happiness," which he impressively presents in his lectures worldwide. www.gabrielschandl.com