Chik-fil-a and the Power of Words

OK, I’ll be the first to admit I love a good Chik-fil-a sandwich; it seems I am not alone in this because every time I visit the place is packed.  Granted they have a great product but did you ever notice the caliber of people working behind the counter?  They are very well trained and extremely polished, but beyond that the next time you order listen to the words they use. 

For example consider the following dialog. “Welcome to Chik-fil-a, my name is ____, how may I serve you today?”  If  you engage in conversation you will hear “please”, “thank you” interspersed throughout the conversation, at the conclusion of the order they say, “my pleasure”.  Let’s analyze this for a moment. 

Did you notice the words?  ‘Serve’, ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘pleasure’ are all positive words.  Or put another way the people behind the counter are using, feel-good, warm-fuzzy terminology.  Contrast that with other fast food establishments.  At other fast food joints how often do you hear “No problem” or less than desirable words. If you compare their words with Chik-fil-a’s approach which dialog are you most likely to remember?  My guess is the latter.

So why does this work?  Advertisers spend millions of dollars and invest significant time researching the impact of words on people’s psyche.  Every sales message is crafted using a specific dialog intended to create an image in your mind.  Therefore if you phrases like, “no problem”, “don’t worry about it”, think about those terms.  ‘Problem’,’ worry’ and ‘no’ are all negative terms; therefore you are fueling a conversation with less then desirable words.  Interestingly enough how often do we this unknowingly?

Chik-fil-a realizes how negative words can work against customers and have adapted accordingly. If you take a page from Chik-fil-a’s book and use positive, warm fuzzy phrases you can increase your customer service by simply creating positive images in their mind. Maybe there is something going on besides a great sandwich?