Terms of Endearment in Customer Service
The other day, I called UPS’s customer service to ask about a package I was expecting. The website said delivery was attempted, but no one rang my doorbell or left a notice. It seems UPS has an escalation unit for issues like this. They take your information and someone calls within an hour.
My call came 15 minutes later. The woman on the phone was incredibly friendly and started the conversation with “Hi hon”. Then proceeded to call me “hon” throughout the call as she explained how she was making sure my package would be delivered in 30 minutes.
I felt like I was talking to the owner of a small business who wanted to make sure her client was fully satisfied. This was a new and different experience in dealing with a huge corporation. For some reason, the genuine use of “hon” made all the difference.
And, my package was delivered as she promised.
I can’t imagine she was trained to use terms of endearment on strangers, but this woman’s natural people skills made all the difference to me that day.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Most of the time I don’t mind if someone calls me hon. However, I was called hon the other day by a girl at least 10 years younger than me. I was like, “um, what?!” It was weird.