Love Them Up and Keep Them Forever™

 Even though I have a membership to a gym five minutes from my home, it isn’t always easy to get up early in the morning to go exercise.  Sometimes it’s painful to drag myself out of bed.  I don’t always wake up in the right mood at 6am to deal with an energizer bunny aerobics instructor with 2 % body fat. But the moment I walk through the doors I’m usually greeted by Linda at the front desk. Linda has short salt and pepper and bright brown eyes.  When I walk in she always says something like, “Hi Marilyn! It’s nice to see you! We missed you last week.”  It feels so welcoming that I’m instantly glad I’m there.

 

If you think about it, Linda’s interaction with me is quite small. She takes my membership card, swipes it through her machine and hands it back to me. That’s it. But Linda puts love in the details of that small task.  How?  She smiles a sincere welcoming smile. She calls me by name.  And she notices if I haven’t been around in a while.

 

I always feel warmed up after Linda’s greeting.  On Sunday, I went to the gym at around 11am and  Linda wasn’t working. The woman at the desk that day performed the check-in task by taking my card, swiping it in the machine and handing it back to me. She made no eye contact. She didn’t greet me or smile.  Wow!  What a difference!  When it was missing, I really saw the impact that Linda’s loving action has on the way I feel about Lifetime Fitness.  Without love in the details – it’s just a place to work out and other options start coming to mind.

 

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect to the customers of your business. Small actions make all the difference.  For example, on the bottom of my last Citibank Mastercard statement, in large print it reads, “We appreciate your business. If we can make your card membership more rewarding, do not hesitate to contact us.” In a market where there are multiple choices, they set themselves apart and help me feel connected by that small action.

 

What do you think?

 

Consider one or two daily tasks that are a part of your every day business. How can you put loving action into the details of those tasks?

 

Posted by Marilyn Suttle at www.LoveThemUp.com