People Love You: The Real Secret to Delivering Legendary Customer Experiences

8

Create Positive Emotional Experiences

My phone rang early on a Saturday morning. I rolled over in bed and squinted at the screen. Who in the world is calling me this early? “Hello?”

“Hey Jeb, what are you doing?” The chipper voice on the other line was bright and full of energy. Ugh.

I peeked at the clock. Six in the morning! I’d pulled in after midnight from the airport after a long week on the road. My fantasy of sleeping in had just been dashed. “I was sleeping, Jodi, what’s up?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how early it was. Look, I just sent over an e-mail. I need y’all to overnight 20 People Buy You books to me. I’ve got a big project meeting with a customer next week and I want to do something nice for their people. But here’s the thing. I need you to personalize each of them. There are instructions for how I want you to sign each book in the e-mail.” Then her voice softened. “You sound tired. You haven’t been working too hard, have you?”

I got up. We chatted about clients and traveling and kids. Then I sat down in my office and signed each book. Jodi had provided a special personalized message for each person on her list. Classic Jodi.

Jodi is one of the best relationship builders I’ve ever met. She takes time to get to know people and understands what is important to them. She has developed the skill to hear people and hone in on what is most important to them. As vice president of business development for Bluewave, a company that provides services to large telecom ...