Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals
- May 26
- 3 min read
#5: Supersizing Your Customers' Service Experience
Recently I wrapped up an article series focusing on the four essential elements of impactful learning experiences. When facilitators execute these elements successfully, learners leave their training sessions feeling informed, engaged, entertained, and inspired.
I was eager to author another series but was drawing a blank on a topic. As I began reflecting upon my early years in the postsecondary classroom and more recent years in corporate training spaces, several learning experiences stood out to me.
While a late night talk show host gig is probably not in my future, I decided to compile a list of my top 10 favorite learning experiences.
I hope that by sharing my work, I spark your imagination, inspire you to experiment with new approaches, and encourage you to pitch audacious ideas for your learning projects. At the end of each article, I‘ll offer a few suggestions for you to consider.
#5: Supersizing Your Customers' Service Experience
I designed, developed, and facilitated this 3-hour in-person workshop for a local client who was seeking practical strategies and tools to strengthen their internal and external customer service. The participants included a mix of individual contributors, managers, and senior leaders.
The session consisted of four modules:
Module 1: Defining Excellent Customer Service using the SERVICE Model
Module 2: Reinforcing External Customer Service through TRAINING
Module 3: Using the LAPSE Model to Engage with Dissatisfied Customers
Module 4: Reinforcing Internal Customer Service by Building Bridges
Why This Experience Makes My Top 10
Reason #1: I recounted a personal story about an exceptional customer service experience to set the stage for our conversation.
To prime my learners for our conversation on defining excellent customer service, I shared the memorable story appearing below.
Several years ago, my favorite workweek lunch spot was an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant. Sweet Tomatoes offered a wide variety of healthy food options, including a spectacular salad and baked potato bar, a featured freshly-made soup of the day, and scrumptious pasta entrees.
As a regular customer, I became friendly with a few of the employees. Sometimes as I would leave, they would wave goodbye and jokingly exclaim, “See you next week!”
On one particular day, I turned into the large shopping plaza where the restaurant was located. From a distance, I could see there were no cars in what would ordinarily be a parking lot packed with the usual lunchtime crowd. Turning into the empty parking lot, I observed yellow caution tape stretched across the entrance and a sign on the door.
A woman wearing a red Sweet Tomatoes polo shirt was seated at a small table nearby. She waved and motioned for me to drive over. When I lowered my window, she explained the restaurant was closed due to an electrical fire that occurred the week before. Thankfully, no one was injured but the interior of the building sustained some damage.
Here’s what she did next that exemplified outstanding customer service:
Apologized for the inconvenience the restaurant’s closure caused me
Asked for and added my name and email to a contact list so I would be notified when the restaurant re-opened
Gave me a plastic goodie bag filled with five chocolate chip cookies!
Handed me a coupon good toward a discount the next time I visited
Provided me with a slip of paper listing the addresses and phone numbers of other nearby locations
The Sweet Tomatoes management team could simply have posted a notice on their door about the temporary closure and done nothing else. But they went above and beyond.
For that reason, I am a Sweet Tomatoes customer for life. (Note to readers: Unfortunately, they later became a casualty of the Covid pandemic and were forced to permanently close all their restaurants.) The way I felt that day about Sweet Tomatoes is how your customers should feel about your company following every interaction your employees have with them.
After inspiring learners with my personal customer service experience, we looked at another powerful example of the difference excellent customer service can make.
Read the remainder of this article for free on Medium here.
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