Reading in Kindergarten

This past week I got to read a story to my oldest daughter’s kindergarten class as part of the class’ secret reader program. I went all out for this - dressing up as a pirate. I read “Roger, the Jolly Pirate” to the class. I even brought a treasure chest and handed out chocolate gold coins for the kids. The kids genuinely loved it and I had a great time as well.

I’m sharing this because I think there are some great customer service lessons that I learned from this experience.

First, the kids fed off my enthusiasm. Don’t your customers feed off your enthusiasm as well? When you are passionate about what you do, people can see it. Zig Ziglar defined a sale as the transference of energy. Who would you rather buy from, or even pay attention to for that matter - someone with passion or a dull person?

Second, you have to earn the right to be heard. While the First Amendment of the Constitution gives everyone the right to free speech, it doesn’t guarantee that anyone has to listen. That’s true in politics, sales, customer service and reading to kindergartners. I earned the class’ attention because I understood what they would value - creativity, interaction, and dressing up.

Third, don’t overstay your welcome. Know when to leave on a high note. I was in the class for approximately 30 minutes, maybe less. If I had stayed much longer, I would have started to blend in with everything else that was going on, the kids would have lost interest, and I would have lost my effectiveness. How often do we overstay our welcome with our customers? Do what you have to do with your customers, understand their attention span, and then let them be until next time. Trying to provide more value beyond this may actually do more harm than good.

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