Mike Clark’s Business Bites: How do you make people feel in your business?

If you are deliberate in looking for and spreading joy it is amazing what you reap.

I’m preparing for a talk to the Feilding Business Association and am focusing on a Christmas theme of spreading joy as we head into this magical time of year.

I know many people approach this time of year with a healthy dose of skepticism. The reality is it gives many people the opportunity to think more of others, and to look for the good in people and the world around them. If you are deliberate in looking for and spreading joy it is amazing what you reap.

There is a lovely formula used to calculate happiness. It is simple and easy. You take your current level of expectations for a service, a product, or an experience and you then subtract your current reality. If you are in the positive you are likely happy and if you’re in the negative you’re more likely to be unhappy.

Let’s say you suddenly decide you will eat out and pick a restaurant close by. You have very little expectations of anything other than hoping they have a table free and a nice meal. When you arrive the place is packed and you expect to be turned away.

Then a really friendly young waitress greets you warmly and says they will clear a table for you. She leads you across to a table with a lovely view. The music is great and the service is exceptional, especially considering how busy they are. To cap it all off, the meal is surprisingly tasty. It would be fair to say you would be very happy with your choice.

Conversely, imagine you booked to go to an upmarket restaurant for a special occasion to treat your partner. You arrive on time and the maître d’ barely bothers to look up to greet you before pointing you in the direction of your table. The waiter takes a long time before they bring you the menu. You have to ask for the drinks menu and again wait ages. The place is a little bit chilly both in temperature and general vibe. The food is lukewarm and expensive. It would be fair to say you would likely be unhappy about this.

Looking at online reviews highlights the human tendency to focus on how we felt about something. I have commented before that people research logically and purchase emotionally.

If we feel good we start to look for things that affirm our feelings. If we feel disappointed, let down, or disrespected we then tend to look for further evidence to justify our feelings. Hence why so many online reviews mention a feeling and then have supporting stories and illustrations. Have you considered how you make people feel in your business?

Do you have a customer experience standard? Summarise in three to five words what experience you think you give your customers. Look online at your reviews or at your testimonials - do your customers’ comments align with your intended experience creation?

This is the season of JOY. Jingle bells, open-heartedness, and Yuletide carols are what people are looking for. What could you do to jolly up your service? Is your team empowered to deliver an outstanding experience? Are you focused on delighting your customers so when they find you their reaction is one of delight with an enthusiastic “yes!”?

Ideally, your service will be this good all year. Now is a good time to double-check you and your team bring the JOY!

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.