Posted on Mar 4, 2013

The Value of Cordiality in Marketing

The value of cordiality means the practice of being polite, warm, and friendly.

Marketing Questions:

Watch as your employees enter your office building and see which ones are the most cordial to others. Are they your front line with customers? If not, why not?
Who is the most polite, warm and friendly person in your organization? Are they being highlighted as a model for great customer service? Are they training others?
How would your culture be impacted if everyone in your organization always answered his or her phone in a warm and friendly manner?
What reward and recognition initiatives are in place to promote every individual in your organization to be cordial?

Developing the Capability of Cordiality

One of the toughest jobs in any organization is customer service. From taking an order to resolving a problem or complaint, the experience can feel like living through hell. Nothing you do seems to be helpful and the customer’s frustration just keeps escalating. It can appear like a no-win situation.

Yet, there are some individuals who do more than just survive in this environment. They excel in it.

A friend of mine who exemplifies the value of cordiality works in the hotel industry. She recently described a challenging ordeal. A customer called to make a reservation and decided to use the opportunity to complain about the hotel – for 25 minutes! When my friend tried to offer a response, she was told: “I didn’t ask you to speak yet, so be quiet”, and then continued with their tirade. When the customer had finally blown off all of their steam and my friend was permitted to finalize the reservation, the customer kindly acknowledged that that my friend was doing a good job. Why? Because in her polite, warm, and friendly way, she just listened.

Is that it? Just listen?

Most often, yes.

Take a look again at the value of cordiality. There is no reference to a problem being solved. There is no specific outcome defined. Being cordial is simply an attitude. And for each one of us, our attitude is our choice.

Here’s a test. Tomorrow, go ahead and try out this attitude of being cordial. Choose to smile and say a pleasant hello to every single person with whom you meet or interact. The whole day. Then, at the end of the day evaluate what impact YOU felt you had on others. And more importantly, consider the impact this cordial attitude had upon you.

It just might change the way you define great customer service.