The Perfectly Smooth Blend of Customer Service
Some of my mornings get behind schedule more quickly than I'd like to admit. There are days when the obligations of child care and my non-negotiable self-pact to exercise will have me in a mad scramble to get to the office before the stress load becomes difficult for my team to handle without my involvement. On those days I will sometimes stop at my neighborhood Jamba Juice on the way down to the office.
Now the Jamba staff would likely not confuse me for a "regular," but as you have probably experienced, even somewhat routine visits to a food service establishment can make it seem like you're dealing with the same folks practically every time. So it wasn't more than a couple of stop-ins before Angel knew my order preference. A handful of visits after that, always a personal touch and some small outward token that, as a customer, my business actually mattered.
And then, Angel disappeared. After all , who is surprised when a fast-food worker moves on? Maybe a new semester of college beckoned or a better opportunity (anywhere else...) materialized. Most of 
us have not come to expect unbending loyalty from the counter culture. And so, my ensuing visits met by the replacements were mundane. "Hello, welcome to Jamba Juice, may I take your order?" You get the idea. Lackluster, routine, uninspiring. Months passed...
Until one day last week, that is. In a real Brooks-from-Shawshank-Redemption hurry, I rushed in ready to get in line when Angel comes out from the prep area with my go-to smoothie ready to be paid for. He had seen my car pull up, taken the initiative to get the blender going and by the time I walked in I was ready to check out. Incredible. Made my day. And what power he had to do so from the service side of the business!
Yes, I did write to Jamba corporate. Yes, I did demand to speak with his manager on the spot. But for all of us, these are the lessons I gleened from my friend at Jamba Juice --- the order-taker. The kid behind the counter trying to finance a college tuition. Here's what the best of them can teach us:
- Extend common courtesy to those who walk in your proverbial door.
- Gladly learn their preferences. Little things matter, so be perceptive to them.
- Do a better service job than the others who hold your position.
- Take a risk and do something extraordinary for your customers. This need not be expensive.
- Never think, in any role, you can't make a difference in someone's day. Or if you're like me, in real estate finance, perhaps that person's life.
Some days I don't start off in a hurry, so I'll casually prepare something to eat prior to leaving the house. If I had never lived the encounter above, I bet if you had walked into my home and caught me hunched over breakfast in my tattered pants and hotel slippers and asked me if I thought I offered great customer service and had salesmanship figured out pretty well, I'd have answered an enthusiastic "Yes!" But thanks to the aforementioned experience, I was able to get whipped back in to recognizing there is always more to do, that it can be very simple and that it can start at the very entriest of levels. And indeed it should, every single day.
Would you like to add a boost?
Robert J. Spinosa
Executive Loan Advisor
NMLS: 22343
Cell/Text: 415-367-5959 Fax: 415-366-1590
rspinosa@rpm-mtg.com www.rpm-mtg.com/rspinosa
1058 Redwood Highway, Frontage Road, Mill Valley, CA 94941
LendUS, LLC dba RPM Mortgage NMLS #1938 Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act.
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