Customer Service and Storytelling-The Fragile Fedora's

The other day I visited the post office to mail three fedora hats. I wear fedoras and occasionally run into some that are not my size. I sold them and was mailing them to the buyer. The day before, I went to the post office to buy three boxes to mail them in. Did I mention that I bought the boxes at the post office?

These were vintage hats and they were still in their original hat boxes. So, I put the hats in their hat boxes, into the post office boxes, encased the inner boxes in bubble packing wrap and headed out to the post office. Here is my recollection of my conversation with the postal employee:

Me: Hi, I need to mail these boxes.

P.E.:Is there anything perishable,combustible, flammable, breakable?

Me: No, they are fedora hats.

P.E.: Are there any liquids?

Me: No, they are fedora hats.

P.E.: Is there anything fragile?

Me: Well, they are fedora hats and I don't want them to be crushed. So, yes, they are kinda fragile.

P.E.: Will they withstand a weight of 70 pounds? Because we stack up to 70 pounds on top of boxes?

Me: I don't know, they are your boxes.

P.E.: Will we be able to put 70 pounds on top of them? Did you pack them well?

Me:Well, I think so, but if you drop 70 pounds on them, they could be crushed. I mean, if you drop a smaller box on them that weighs 70 pounds, it will go right through the box.

P.E.: Do you want to repack them?

Me: Well, no,(it was my lunch hour and I didn't want to open them up again) but could you stamp them as fragile?

P.E.: We usually only do that with glass. Is there any glass in the boxes?

Me:No, there are only fedora hats in the boxes. Aren't your boxes able to withstand the shipping?

P.E.:(Beginning to get irritated with me) If they are packed properly.

Me:(Now, second guessing my packing job)They are packed properly, well, I think they are, but who knew about the 70 pounds?

P.E.: We can only ship them if they will support 70 pounds.

Me:Well, they are your boxes. If they are packed properly, will they support 70 pounds?

P.E.: They should.....maybe... we should stamp them as fragile.

This conversation took about 10 minutes. It is a good example of someone who gives rote answers and does not, or is not allowed to vary from a script. My apologies to the employee if I did not get the language right. However, it was not service, it was simply an emotionless transaction laden with verbal requirements.

Good customer service is an art and it requires that you care about the customer in a genuine way. Put another way, ....without the customer, there is no sale. No sale, no company, no job. When you look at it this way, all of a sudden, the customer becomes important. Especially in this economy. Every person who walks out the door without having a good experience, is a marketing loss, a sales loss and a public relations loss.

So what's this have to do with storytelling?

One of the seminars I offer is a facilitated discussion using traditional story as a focus for discussion. The topic of the seminar is "The Value of Being Genuine" and it can be used for customer service and sales people. It is a facilitated discussion as opposed to a "talk at you" seminar in which the participants come up with their own solutions for providing better customer service or becoming a better sales person. I am a firm believer that we all have the answers we need to become better at what we want to do, we simply need to examine it in a different way. Story provides the framework for the discussion.

An example is using the story, "The Tigers Whisker" as a jumping off point for a discussion about patience and how it relates to customer service or sales. It is very easy to make the focus of a sales attempt all about closing the sale. However, that short circuits the most important part of a sale and that is the relationship. The story "The Tigers Whisker" teaches that patience is more successful than trying to force an issue. That doesn't mean that closing a sale is not an important part of the process, it is. But closing a sale is not the whole of selling, it is just one part. Selling is about the relationship. It is about taking the time to be genuine and to care about the customer. And that means having the patience to build the relationship first.

I mailed my boxes, stamped fragile. I paid for a little extra insurance in case a 70 pound paperweight was dropped onto my hats. That was a month ago. I never heard if they arrived.