How to show caring and proactivity to your customers

A few weeks back a client asked me: “Paolo, where do you take so much inspiration from to create fresh, weekly content?” So I went: “firstly working with my client companies, mainly big ones. Then from my personal customer experiences, whenever I need to ask for support or information“. And I happen to do that calling, emailing, Whatsapping or…entering a shop and enjoying the added value of caring and proactivity. Just like this time.

Overcoming the issue

Last Friday I was taking a quick walk after lunch when I came a cross a beautiful clothing shop. The window was nice and full of beautiful items. So I got into the shop and I was warmly welcomed by Gabriele, the owner, who kindly asked me how he could help me out. I quickly explained and pointed out a jacket that I saw through the shop window; so I tried it for size, but it was a little tight. So I asked for a larger size. Gabriele went upstairs to check, but when he came back he went “unfortunately we don’t have that size anymore“.

Avoiding any pressure

That very moment he could have tried to draw my attention onto other products, trying to make a sale. But he wisely didn’t, because he knew it was not the right time! Instead he went: “let me call our second shop in town, so that I can double check it for you now“. Glad for such a proactivity move I listened to the call, which was followed by an exchange of pictures of the jacket via whatsapp. What result? In just 5 minutes I had the great news: “we have the size you’re looking for, so do you want to wait 15 minutes here or come back later?“💡 He smartly offered two options making me responsible for the choice.

So I opted to come back the following day to get the jacket. In fact on Saturday I got to the shop, wore the jacket – it was perfect – bought it and only after that….Gabriele suggested me to have a look to further products (shirts, trousers, sweaters). As I did not feel any pressure and had more time, I took a look; and even though I haven’t purchased further clothes, I’ll definitely keep it in mind for the future for their great products and their outstanding service in terms of caring and proactivity.

Above: Gabriele at work searching for my jacket.

Over to you

Caring and proactivity are key drivers to deliver outstanding experiences. Even though many companies claim to adopt them, they become effective only if customers perceive them! Similarly, when it comes choosing conversational channels: for customer support: in this case the shop owner chose them based on his goal and priority (phone call + whatsapp message to check quickly item’s availability and prevent any misunderstanding).

And since orchestrating different support channels matching them with customers’ expectations is a common goal for many customer service managers, what challenges are you currently facing?