Managing the moment of truth for a service organization.

Every service organization routinely experiences opportunities to personally interact with their customers through their frontline employees. During these interactions, the customer is mentally evaluating the service they are experiencing and forming a lasting opinion about your organization.

These notable interactions have been labeled the "moment of truth" by Richard Norman in his book Service Management, a term that implies the critical role they can play in the success of your company. High performance organizations have trained their frontline employees not only to recognize these moments of truth, but to also use them to positively influence their customers.

The Importance of the First Encounter

One common example of a moment of truth often occurs during the customer's first encounter with an organization.

Since many customers in this position are aware that they are engaged in a new experience, they will pay particular attention to the details of this interaction. With first impressions being very powerful and long-lasting, it's essential that the employee put their best foot forward.

Simple cues like making direct eye contact, smiling and speaking in a positive, enthusiastic manner will normally evoke a feeling of customer satisfaction. Customers that feel valued and appreciated from the very start will have a strong tendency to return for future business. The opposite also holds true as seen in the following personal example.

I clearly remember my excitement when seeing the construction of a new hardware store in town. Walking through their doors after the grand opening and being surrounded by so many new tools and gadgets brought joy to my heart.

However, the honeymoon was over when I approached the cashier with my first, and as I later decided, my last purchase. During the entire transaction, the young woman behind the register was on the telephone having a very personal conversation about her boyfriend.

Not only did this conversation slow my checkout time to a crawl, I was also captive audience to details about this young woman's troubled relationship that to his day causes me to shudder. Never once during the entire transaction did she acknowledge my presence, causing me to feel unappreciated and very frustrated. Thinking I was doing a good deed, I later contacted the manager by phone to explain my moment of truth to him. To my amazement, he seemed unconcerned about the matter. Not surprisingly, at the time of this writing, this establishment has closed its doors for good and gone out of business.