Service Aptitude: Success Involves Building and Honoring Human Connections

As a society, we are now relationship disadvantaged. We no longer become curious about others or eager to engage in conversations. We spend less time with friends via in-person interactions. The younger generation primarily communicates electronically, and the explosion of e-commerce means we go out less and less. When we do, we now have the option of self-service checkout to avoid interacting with other human beings. A simple interaction can have profound effects on someone’s emotional well-being.

Today, people long for a sense of community, belonging, and purpose. They want a world in which people actually know their names, what they do, and what is important to them. Today, trust is an endangered value. Personally and professionally, success is increasingly about creating and building human connections.

In the past, soft skills had a reputation for being nice extras to have in business. However, studies have shown that strong soft skills boost employee productivity and retention by 12% and deliver a 250% return on investment. Another study reported that emotional intelligence skills make up nearly 90% of the attributes that set high-performing leaders apart.

Service training

Service aptitude skills do not apply to the technical or operational side of the experience. However, they are among the most critical parts of an organization’s customer experience. The quality of your customer service and your organization’s customer service level comes down to one thing and one thing only: the average service aptitude of every employee you have.

Service aptitude is a person’s ability to recognize opportunities to meet and exceed customers’ expectations regardless of the circumstances. It represents the hospitality side only. This means how an employee makes another person feel. A company that consistently delivers outstanding customer service will screen for service aptitude skills in the interview process, make them a mandatory part of new employee training, and constantly revisit them with existing employees.

While these skills seem like basic expectations of individuals in the workforce, one study showed that nearly 60% of leaders in the U.S. believe it’s difficult to find candidates with soft skills. That is why it is the burden of companies and the training they provide to develop these constantly.

Here’s a breakdown of service aptitude skills needed by customer-facing employees:

1. Genuinely likes others. A person who truly enjoys the company of others and takes a sincere interest in their well-being and happiness has a willingness to engage with people.
2. Happy/optimistic. Someone who maintains a cheerful and hopeful outlook tends to see the good in situations, expect positive outcomes, and radiate joy and contentment. They are constantly smiling.
3. Friendly, kind, and caring. A friendly person is approachable and easy to talk to. They go out of their way to be considerate, generous, and helpful to others.
4. Charismatic. They are a people magnet. They give off a positive energy that people want to be around.
5. Empathetic. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes and respond with compassion and understanding.
6. Good listener. Someone who actively engages in hearing what others are saying, understands their messages, and responds thoughtfully is paying full attention, not interrupting, and showing empathy and understanding.
7. Insatiable curiosity. These people display a relentless desire to learn and understand more about their situation. People with insatiable curiosity always seek new knowledge, ask questions, and explore various topics enthusiastically. They do not assume anything and are open to learning.
8. Strong at building rapport. Establishing meaningful and positive interactions with others quickly involves finding common ground, showing genuine interest, and creating a sense of trust and mutual respect.
9. Trusting/charitable assumption. People who give others the benefit of the doubt and assume the best intentions in their actions and words can provide excellent customer service.

The top 4

Not all nine service aptitude skills can be trained. The list is in the order of what you need to screen for in your interview process and what can be improved through training. The first four are the service aptitude skills that cannot be trained.

When interviewing, look for people who genuinely like other people, have a happy and optimistic outlook, are friendly and caring, and have charisma. These traits are crucial to repeatedly delivering an exceptional customer experience. When you find people with these qualities in this relationship-disadvantaged age, hire them, train them, and watch them deliver.

John DiJulius III, author of The Customer Service Revolution, is president of The DiJulius Group, a customer service consulting firm that works with companies, such as Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Ritz-Carlton, Nestle, PwC, Lexus, and many more. Contact him at 216-839-1430 or info@thedijuliusgroup.com.