What do customer experience and gestures have in common? They both speak volumes about your brand as a company and your brand as a person.

From giving a smile to a customer to going the extra mile for a coworker, the art of showing a kind gesture to others has been lost in the haze of living in an individualistic generation. We live from day-to-day with a driven focus of going to the next best thing as soon as we have finished a task. Although this is a productive use of time it strips away the opportunities to foster a healthy and interactive workspace or home space.

Whether it’s a work-related task or a personal task, there is beauty in slowing down once in a while and appreciating the little things and people in your life. This beauty can be seen in the relationship-building that occurs with customers or partnered companies or even neighbors. Although there should be a focus on the task at hand there should also be a focus on the art of gestures. For example, buying a customer dinner before a meeting, finding out a partner is confused about a contract and offering your help, or even sending flowers to a neighbor who is having a hard week.

Regardless of the line of work you do, gestures go a long way. Today, I want to help you improve your customer’s experiences through the art of gestures with three easy steps.

First Step:

Become in tune with your surroundings. You’d be surprised at how much you miss when your eyes are locked on a screen or on a task at hand. There are relationships you could be building with a potential customer you may have never noticed or with a passing stranger who may need help bringing their groceries into the car. With a simple smile or extra hand – your gesture has great power to turn someone’s day around.

Second Step:

Put yourself in the shoes of others. Imagine this: you have a hard day at work and feel so overwhelmed because everything seems to be going wrong. From being late to a meeting to finding out your computer didn’t save the work you had spent hours working on the night before – you feel defeated.

With low spirits, you head back to your desk. Only to find that someone has left you a cup of your favorite coffee and an encouragement note! The note acknowledges the hard work you’ve been putting in all day. Suddenly, the day seems to be not as bad as you thought. You smile and get a surge of motivation to finish the end of the day on a sweeter note.

Something so small can be so big for someone who may not realize they needed that gesture. From a cup of joe to an encouragement note, think about what you may need if you were in another person’s shoes. It may be the start of a beautiful friendship or a fantastic customer experience!

Third Step:

Incorporate words of affirmation into your everyday conversations. Take the time to give a shout out on someone’s hard work or encourage a client who is feeling overwhelmed. It takes only seconds to brighten someone’s day.

Conclusion

No matter where you are, a gesture has the capability to mean the world to someone. You have the power to make a positive difference in someone’s life. Challenge yourself to make that difference and pursue an art that can be found through you.