While this isn’t formal research, I’ve asked many people the question, “What do you think is the most common question that customers ask employees?” I made the point that this isn’t about calling customer support; it’s a people-to-people interaction.
Almost everyone answers correctly: “Where’s the bathroom?”
If you were asked that every day – sometimes multiple times throughout the day – at what point would you start to act frustrated with any customer who asked you that question?
Here’s the point: The 50th person asking you where the bathroom is doesn’t know they are the 50th person. For them, it’s their first time asking you, and your response should make them feel that way.
This reminds me of my days performing magic shows at trade shows. One of my clients hired me for 10 straight days, during which time I performed twelve 20-minute shows daily – that’s 120 shows!
After the final show, my client asked, “How is it that after doing all of those shows throughout the week, you seem to be just as fresh as the first show?”
Every customer deserves your first-time energy.
I hadn’t thought about it, but with not much thought, I answered, “I think about each audience. Everyone in the audience deserves my best effort and energy, as if they were my first. If I came off as bored or tired, I’d be letting them down, not to mention letting my client down. So, even though I may have performed the same tricks and delivered the same lines for every show, each audience – even the 120th audience after 119 shows – deserved my very best effort – my first-time energy.”
When a server at a restaurant recites the daily specials for the 12th time that night, do you want to hear them delivered with enthusiasm or with the boredom of repetition? Or maybe it’s a chef who has been asked 20 times a night for many years to prepare a dish that earned him a reputation and keeps customers coming back again and again.
Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio understood this principle perfectly. The story is a perfect example of this concept. A reporter interviewed DiMaggio and asked why he played every game so hard. He replied, “Because there might have been somebody in the stands today who’d never seen me play before and might never see me again.”
The best employees, chefs, athletes, and entertainers understand that repetition is their challenge, not the customer’s problem. They find ways to keep their responses and reactions fresh, be it the first or 500th time. This mindset transforms an ordinary customer experience into something extraordinary. Every customer deserves your first-time energy.
