Remember when the Doctor made house calls, we had a Milkman delivering to our door and we knew the name of the family that owned the local Hardware store? To be honest I don’t, it was before my day, but I’ve read stories and often imagine such a time.

What makes those stories sound so fantastical? It creates images of relationships, connection, community, and care. What happened to experiences of authentic customer service? A philosophy of service that meant ‘caring for’ versus ‘having to do’ and that lead to smiles from those providing the service to those receiving it. Is it that much to ask for these days?

Customer service is at the heart of every successful brand experience. Back in Those days businesses knew that the customers they had were ‘golden’ and making them happy, feel special, taken care of, was more important that taking their money. And their business grew. And the customers’ loyalty grew. And their business grew. And the customers told their friends that hey needed to be taken care of like they were being taken care of. And their business grew some more.

In an age where everything comes faster, with more bells, whistles and now there’s even ‘an App for that,’ wouldn’t it be nice if you felt taken care of when you went to your favorite retail outlet? You knew the name of the butcher and the lady in the bakery—even if those people are all in the same ‘mega store’ these days. It doesn’t mean that Creating Authentic Relationship Experiences (CARE) can’t still be part of the brand culture does it? And why does it feel like when someone cares or you ‘get great service’ it’s so special? Is it because they exceeded your expectations, or simply exceeded the status quo—which is at an all time low.

Consider the Home Depot or Canadian Tire Self Serve check outs. Is this really customer service? or is it another sign of technology being an excuse for providing less authentic customer services experience? Yes it brings back memories of playing store as a kid, but isn’t it just a novelty right now. Doesn’t someone staff those stations anyway to troubleshoot when your card won’t work or the bar code won’t scan? Are they taking care of you or simply trying to move you along? What about automated phone systems. Again new technology provided a chance to provide better service but for whom? The customer? or the owner of the business? How often do you get prompted through pushing 1 then 3 then 4 then enter your account number, only to get a real person at the end anyway who’s first question is “can I have your account number Sir?” or did you push ‘zero’ long before that point?! And what about shopping online—do those shoes really fit when you try them on-line?

Here’s my latest customer CARE story.

My Apple Laptop melted down last week. I was rather distressed, files lost, the need to spend a silly amount of money to get back to work. In my delirious state, I shopped online at Apple.ca, and soon felt I needed to speak with someone - you can’t do that at Apple.ca (not yet anyway.) The North Shore doesn’t have boutique Apple Stores so there’s a choice of Future Shop and London Drugs. Personally the Future Shop brand experience has failed me time and again, I’ve never gone back. Now I realize London Drugs is a little bit of everything to everyone, one of those mega stores, and I’m a big proponent of ‘focus focus focus’ but not at the expense of customer service. And part of a Wall Mart or London Drugs brand is convenience. In this case they have a computer department and pricing is standardized by Apple, so it wasn’t about price it was about customer service—I just wanted to speak with someone.

His name is Grant, he’s a London Drugs ‘computer specialist,’ he listened to my anxiety and he now knew I needed a laptop today to get back to doing business. He then explained they didn’t have the model I wanted in stock. Just as I began to reaffirm my beliefs around customer service and wonder what Other MAC retailer might help me—save me, he said, “give me a minute I’m going to make a phone call.” I was willing to give him a minute. He needed about 20 seconds, “Andy I can have that model rushed delivered to our store today, it’ll be here in 3 hours, can I do that for you?”

Does your brand CARE? Are you Creating Authentic Relationship Experiences for the customers you have? Are you investing money in technology to hurry the customer through your brand experience, or are you busy spending money trying to market to new ones? Wouldn’t it be less effort, and money, to just care for the ones you have? Creating human connections and making them happier everytime? If it’s authentic they’ll keep coming back—and your busiess will grow. Really it will. And I encourage you to give it a try.