We’re all in the service business
Why I always go out for coffee
Shortly after I graduated from college, I moved to Chicago. I can’t imagine a much better place to be in your early 20’s than Chicago.
Though it wasn’t a great place to maintain a healthy weight, I loved it. I moved away twenty years ago, and I still love it.
With the exception of a year living near Wrigley Field, my apartment was in Lincoln Park, not far from the intersection of Clark and Belden.
About a year after I moved to that neighborhood, a coffee place opened around the corner from me.
The owner was from Vietnam. He liked to be called Joe (not his given name), which I suppose makes sense if you sell coffee.
From the first day I went in, and every day after, we struck up a conversation. He got to know exactly what kind of coffee I liked (it’s not complicated–the strongest, most flavorful available. No sugar. No cream. Just coffee).
Joe didn’t just sell me coffee. He sold me on the experience of buying coffee. He sold me on conversation, on community, on being a good neighbor. He sold me on coming in every single day to buy a cup.
What I loved about Joe though is that he didn’t pander to me. I never felt like he was being nice to me just because I was a customer. When they were brewing a new roast of coffee, he seemed genuinely excited to share it with me.
To this day, I never buy coffee to make at home. I always buy it at the store. This is because of Joe. (My favorite coffee, by a long shot, is Peet’s. I’m convinced it is the best coffee out there, better than Philz and way better than Blue Bottle or Ritual or Equator.)
The people working at Peet’s have a varying level of commitment to service. Probably because none of them own the place. But that’s OK. More often than not, I run into other customers that provide my connection to community–neighbors, friends, acquaintances.
Joe had a huge impact on me, and how I thought about service. He helped shape my belief that we are all in the service business. I am a Partner and Creative Director of a Branding & Design studio in San Francisco. We help companies and brands define who they are and how they communicate and connect with their customers. These companies are our partners. They are also our clients, and though our goal is to provide tremendous value to them, I never forget that we are in service to them.
To me there are different levels of service. At a base level, good service means doing all the little things right. Be nice. Be on time. Deliver when you say you’ll deliver. Don’t argue over the little things that don’t really matter. Be honest and incredibly transparent at all times– especially when things don’t go as planned. This is a somewhat obvious statement, yet almost every big agency I ever worked for screwed this up. And I’ve screwed it up too. We’re working really hard to get this right, because this should be the easy part. And if you don’t do this right, it makes it very hard to develop long-term relationships with your clients.
At a base level, good service means doing all the little things right. Be nice. Be on time. Deliver when you say you’ll deliver. Don’t argue over the little things that don’t really matter. Be honest and incredibly transparent at all times–especially when things don’t go as planned.
The next level of service is providing something unique and special that your peers may not be able to provide. Insightful and insanely creative solutions to the challenges posed by your clients. Ideas that they could not come up with on their own. Ideas that create value– for brands, for your client partners, and for you. This is the real service you offer.
I know it’s an overused term, but it really is about “surprise and delight.” The first time I heard that term was when I worked with “the world’s biggest bookstore”- amazon.com in 1999. They didn't invent the phrase but that philosophy permeated how they built their customer experience as they expanded beyond an internet bookstore into the company they are today. I think it worked out pretty well for them.
When I talk about service, I think of Joe’s kind of service. It’s not pandering. It’s not “give them what they want” kind of service. It’s the kind of service that comes from getting to know and understand someone and offering up suggestions and ideas that are new to them. However, because of the combination of your empathy and your unique knowledge or skill-set, appropriate and incredibly valuable to them.
When I talk about service, it’s the kind of service that comes from getting to know and understand someone and offering up suggestions and ideas that are new to them. However, because of the combination of your empathy and your unique knowledge or skill-set, appropriate and incredibly valuable to them.
And, by the way, when you nail the “base” level of service, doing all the little things right, it’s amazing how much more open people are to your insightful and insanely creative ideas and solutions.
If you’ve ever been to Nordstrom’s- they get this kind of service. They take the time to learn who you are, what you’re looking for, and offer up suggestions that at first may not have been your personal choice. But as it turns out, because they’re really good at what they do, it’s a great choice for you. Service isn’t just giving people what they want. Real service is taking the time to understand what people need and delivering something that answers that need. And in the process, exceeding people’s expectations.
Service isn’t just giving people what they want. Real service is taking the time to understand what people need and delivering something that fulfills that need. And in the process, exceeding people’s expectations.
The more I think about this… if we are doing this human being thing right, we are all in the service business. In the business of business and the business of life.
Think about this- if our primary motivation was to truly, deeply, understand each other and then figure out how we can uniquely provide something of value to each other… I think that just may be the whole point of everything.
About me: I’m a Partner/Creative Director at Teak in San Francisco. I’m from Colorado, moved to Chicago for 8 years then settled down in San Anselmo, California (the birthplace of mountain biking) with my wife to raise two amazing kids. I’m a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Denver Broncos and Peet’s Coffee.
