Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. ~ Peter Drucker

A person’s a person, no matter how small. ~ Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!

Picking up where we left off last week, we’ll continue today with how we view customer service while quite young and through our younger years. Also, are younger customers treated differently than those who are older?

Children don’t understand the concept of customer service but I think that, even more than adults, they know when they are being treated well.

In recent years, businesses and advertising have catered to the young more than ever. Products and services that never before existed have sprung up in many distinct niches. Parents of young children and teenagers alike have taken advantage of everything on offer. Has this changed the face of customer service?

Sit beside me and let me tell you a story…..

Like most small children, I didn’t really understand adults but was able to see right through any attempts to cajole me into something or, (as I thought), attempt to make me do something I didn’t want to do.

Quite determined and with a mind of my own, yet not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, I’d simply nod my head in agreement and go off and do what I wanted to do anyway!

Looking back, I still remember what has to be considered as great customer service and most likely a very embarrassing moment for my mother. She had taken me out for lunch and when we finished our meal,  I broke into my rendition of a song that was very popular at that time. If I told you what the song was, you would understand the embarrassment factor but for now, I won’t..it would really date me. Maybe in my last post 🙂

Great customer service: from a restaurant that thought it was perfectly ok for a three year old girl to sing a song after her meal and brought her an extra large dish of ice cream as a thank you. I may not have thought of this as customer service at the time but to my young eyes, this was a place to come back to!

And isn’t that what it’s all about? You want your customers to come back. You want them to pass on to others what fantastic service and products they received from you, that it was worth every penny and more. Even though I was much too young to understand the concept, you can bet I told my friend about it, who told their parents, who told…you see what I mean. The concept of what I received that day differed greatly from what the restaurant employees saw as their offer. I felt special!

Now, the great service I received at the restaurant took place in a time when young children were not catered to, thought of as little adults that should be listened to or taken very seriously at all. Because of this, it was quite an unusual occurrence. These days, restaurants host birthday parties and every other type of celebration imaginable for young children, though nothing as spur of the moment as what occurred that day when I was younger.

Younger people now take the products and services available to them for granted, not realizing there was a time when none of this was available for them. Advertising at that time was directly aimed at adults. Adults had the buying power, complete say so over where their money went and the influence to change both advertisers and businesses.

Next week, we’ll look a little more closely at how customer service is perceived by adults and the aging population. Maybe I’ll tell you another story.

Until then,

Chris Draper

image courtesy of Humboldt University of Berlin