Are you serving or servicing your clients?
Let me tell you an amazing real-life story!
Every other week, I’d frequent this fresh fruit and waffle vendor in Wisma Cosway, downtown KL, when our office moved to this area two years ago. My go-to order is: a waffle with peanut butter and honey, two packets of cut sweet turnip, and one packet of cut pineapple. There is a competitor stall nearby but this shop is my favourite, purely because of the aunty who runs it (pic).
After only buying from her a handful of times, this aunty could anticipate my order. Whenever she saw me approaching the stall, she’d call out “Peanut butter and honey waffle, correct?” and I’d give her a thumbs up. She’d then pick out my favourite fruits and ask if I wanted them. I was blown away by her high quality service.
But it doesn’t end there!
Recently, one of my colleagues wanted to surprise me with a waffle from this stall. As she wasn’t sure what toppings I liked, she got creative and showed the aunty a photo of mine from social media. Now bear in mind, this aunty has never seen my face as I’ve always been masked up.
But she still managed to identify me from the photo and said “Ohhh, he likes peanut butter and honey! Do you want some fruit with it? He usually orders two packets of sweet turnip and one packet of pineapple, but we ran out of sweet turnip today. Can I offer guava instead?”
When my colleague relayed this story to me, I couldn’t believe it. How did this aunty do it?
In the media and advertising industry, we hear the term ‘servicing’ far too often. ‘Good servicing’ usually translates to responding promptly to clients, clearly addressing their needs, and flawless execution. All these things I’ve just listed are essential to a client’s experience - but they’re not magical.
On the flip side, ‘serving’ a client sets a totally different standard. In the advertising and marketing world, it includes:
Truly understanding the client’s needs; the brief behind the brief
Being proactive in identifying emerging trends and competitor activities
Offering ideas, solutions and alternatives
Conveying new business opportunities
Helping them make their work easier
Learning something more personal about them - what they like or dislike, what keeps them awake at night
At the core of it, ‘serving’ shows you care, as our aunty fruit seller demonstrated to us so powerfully. ‘Serving’ feels warm and personal to your clients, whereas ‘servicing’ can come across as transactional and cold.
Servicing is the bare minimum needed to do a good job, but to create a transformative and magical experience, learn to serve. It will transform you from just a simple vendor to a trusted partner for a long time to come. ●