The 1 Second Rule of Customer Service
The one thing restaurants never teach waiters is that the tips are determined from their first interaction with a customer.
From this point on, they’re just adjusting for error.
I first made this realization when customers who were ordering take-out began tipping me, sometimes over 40%, for hardly any service. I then began to search for any relationship that might exist between the duration of a diner’s meal and how they tip. I was shocked to learn that, if anything, it’s negatively correlated.
From my experience, the longer customers spend in the restaurant after a certain amount of time, the more likely they’ll give the standard 15-18% tip.
Based on research from Harvard’s Medical School, people can assess your competence and trustworthiness in less than one second. This is called a first impression.
If you recall, the Amygdala is the area in our brain responsible for fight-or-flight response, it handles fears. Everyday, it works alongside the visual cortex to shortcut any potential threats that may need an immediate response. If you see a lion in the forest, your amygdala will know there’s a threat before you become consciously aware of the lion. This is how first impressions are formed.
The important takeaway is that no interaction starts neutral. We either lead from high ground or low ground with the people whom we engage.
In the world of customer service, leading with high ground means starting from a place of trust. Our customers will be more patient, tolerant, and have an overall favorable impression of their experience. It is still possible to screw up, but because your customers are predisposed to liking you, customer service should be as easy as biking down a hill.
Leading with low ground means we need to work overtime to recapture our customer’s affection. Our customers will be less considerate, less patient, more self-interested, and will view their experience as a necessary transaction. It is still possible to follow-up with an amazing experience, but it is an uphill battle. It requires more effort, empathy, and precision than is otherwise necessary.
Unfortunately, most customer service employees are never trained how to lead with high ground. The default customer experience for most businesses is led with low ground.
The final takeaway is that the biggest progress in your customer experience will likely not come from technological advancements, but in psychology and design thinking.
So if your entire customer experience depended on one second, what would you do differently?