What do TV Detectives, Dutch Supermarkets, and Great Customer Service Have in Common?

I’ve been watching a murder mystery called The Afterparty featuring Tiffany Haddish as a quirky cop named Officer Danner.  Like the clients we work with at ServiceQ, Officer Danner is a high-performer. She loves solving crimes.  She hates being wrong. But, despite the obvious urgency of  solving murders, Danner’s superpower is in how she takes things slow. 

The show is mostly a series of interviews with suspects and each one has their own perspective on the events leading to the murder.   When Danner sits down to interview them, she gets comfortable. She begins with questions about the person instead of the crime. She doesn’t interrupt or rush things along.  Meanwhile the suspects begin to enjoy basking in the warm glow of her undivided attention. They open up and reveal things they’ve been hiding.  And as they tell their story, Officer Danner picks up on little nuances and specifics of their speech, body language, and world view. She hears what they say but also gets a chance to detect hidden motives and unexpressed desires. 

Now, let’s leave Officer Danner to solve her latest murder and travel to very different place – a Dutch supermarket called Jumbo. Like anywhere else in the world shoppers here can go through fast automated check-out lanes. But at Jumbo they can also chose a “Kletskassa” or “chat checkout.” In the chat checkout, employees take it slow, ask the customers about their day, and get to know a bit more about their families, their hobbies, and why they choose beans over broccoli. Like the crime-solving Officer Danner, employees working the slow checkouts deliberately slow down the experience and – in the process – learn more about their customers. 

Before this initiative, it’s unlikely that any Jumbo customer was going to say, out loud, “I want a slower check-out.” But as of March 2023 Jumbo now has chat checkouts in 125 stores across Belgium and the Netherlands. Clearly there was an unspoken demand. Shoppers that live on their own or far from family and friends were going to the supermarket for more than food. They were seeking connection. 

And the slow check-outs are not just a hit with the customers. Jumbo reports that lots of employees request to work the slow lanes. They enjoy the feeling of giving back and the chance to build relationships with customers. 

Whether you are a TV detective or a supermarket cashier, slowing things down helps you get more clues about what the person in front of you really thinks, feels, and values. And that knowledge can help you adapt to serve the customer in front of you more effectively AND inspire creative approaches that help you reach new customers. 

Like a murder mystery with a twist, what your current and potential customers really want might surprise you!  

Written by Jennifer Crescenzo, ServiceQ Facilitator.

Jennifer’s facilitation style blends modern movement science, neuroscience, and principles from yoga and tai chi to help people enjoy better health, manage stress, and do what they love with more passion and purpose.