How many of you have seen the movie Finding Forrester? For those of you that have seen it, my guess is that most of you are now asking, "What does that movie have to do with the field of sales?" That's a good question and the answer is nothing; but there is one line in the movie that relates directly to customer service. When Sean Connery's character is offering advice on how to win a young woman's heart, he says the best thing is an unexpected gift, at an unexpected time. If you think about it, great customer service is not much different.

As you all know by now, I spend most of my time on the road and in more hotel rooms than I care to remember. You would think that I would have everything down to an art by now. For the most part I do, but every now and then, I forget to pack something. The last trip it was my cell phone charger and for whatever reason, none of us can exist without our phones these days.

I knew I was going to have to do something, I need my cell phone for any one of a hundred different tasks and I was about to head to the local store to buy a new charger. Luckily I stopped by the front desk for another reason. There I got into a non-business conversation about Peyton Manning, and then the employee asked me "How is your trip going?" I said fine except for the fact that I had forgotten to pack my cell phone charger and was headed out to buy a new one.

The employee asked me to if I could wait just a minute and I said sure. A few seconds later, he emerged from the office with a box full of cell phone chargers and sure enough they had one that worked on my phone. That unexpected gift at an unexpected time saved me time and money. Customer service is about a lot of things and one of the things is making life as easy as possible for your customers.