Customer Service vs. a Sense of Service

If you work directly with clients, whether you are behind a chair, in a treatment room or across a desk, or on a call I want to talk about customer service for a minute. Specifically, I think it's a bit past its best-before date.

You probably learned it the same way I did. Greet within thirty seconds. Use their name twice. Offer the add-on before the close. Smile, and if you don't feel like smiling? Smile anyway.

I think back to when I worked at Lady Footlocker as a teenager and going through training complete with scripts that felt so uncomfortable and unnatural, but being young and inexperienced I had no idea there was another option.

I get why it was built that way. Consistency matters. But somewhere along the line, we traded the human for the handbook. Same greeting, same close, same tone, no matter who is in front of you or what kind of day either one of you are having. It's predictable, sure. But have you ever felt genuinely cared for by a procedure? Me neither. 

What I am more interested in is a sense of service. I define a sense of service as wanting to really know the person in front of you, while still being you: your style, your experience, the things you're genuinely great at. You don't shrink yourself to keep a client happy, and you don't bulldoze them with everything you know. You find the place where you both win.

In my Empathy at Work Model, I'd put it this way: a sense of service means paying attention to yourself, the person in front of you, and how you can work together. Your client's needs, yes. But also yours. Service that only honours one side isn't service. It is either people-pleasing or it's ego.

Sounds easy, right? It's not. It's hard. And it is the part of your work nobody can take from you.

Knowing your client doesn't mean agreeing with them

A sense of service is not 'the customer is always right.'

Sometimes honouring your expertise means telling a client something they don't want to hear. What they are asking for isn’t suitable for them, The plan they want will not get them results. They need a different service than the one they booked.

Saying that with care, and with a real understanding of what they're hoping for, is the service. Nodding along and delivering something you know won't work isn't kindness. It is putting your short term comfort ahead of their needs.

What happens when you fake it

Psychologists who study what they call 'emotional labour' draw a line between two things. There's surface acting, which is basically faking it: putting on the smile you don't feel. And there is deep acting, where you actually connect with what you're expressing.

Guess which one burns you out? Research by Alicia Grandey, published in the Academy of Management Journal, found that surface acting is linked to emotional exhaustion. The more you fake it, the more drained you get. If you have ever finished a full day and felt completely hollowed out, this might be part of why.

Your clients aren't fooled. Another study from Grandey and her colleagues asked a pretty pointed question: is 'service with a smile' actually enough? Short answer: Authenticity matters. People can tell when the warmth is real and when it's a performance.

Looking back at my own burnout 10 years ago, I can see the reality of this study in my own story.  I was so overwhelmed with life at work and at home, that all I could do was fake it.  And perhaps it was showing in my results, perpetuating the cycle of overwhelm.  The more I faked the smile the more exhausted I became until I had no more in me.  

One more thing the research keeps showing: autonomy is a game-changer. When you have more control over how you do your work, the emotional toll drops. One study linked more autonomy to less exhaustion, better wellbeing, and higher job satisfaction.

So let me say it plainly: caring isn't the problem. The script is.

'But what about consistency?'

It's a fair question. If everyone ditches the script, don't things get messy?

Here's the difference: standards and scripts aren't the same thing. A standard describes the outcome. Every client leaves feeling heard. The result matches what you agreed on.  Nobody waits without an update. A script dictates the words you use to get there.

Keep the standards. Lose the script. Your clients will get something consistent, and it will actually feel like you.

What are consumers looking for in 2026

A December 2025 SurveyMonkey study of 2,017 Americans found that 79% strongly prefer speaking with a human over an AI agent. Their reasons are telling: people feel human agents better understand their needs (61%) and give more thorough explanations (53%). Understanding is the sense of service part.

Verint's survey of 5,000 consumers in early 2026 found that 61% prefer a human agent, up 5% from the year before. And here is a surprise: the sharpest rise is among 18 to 34 year olds, up 18%. The generation we assumed would happily deal with a bot is asking for people.

The stakes are real, too. Qualtrics found that one in two bad experiences leads customers to cut their spending.

BUT…..

Clients don't want a human just for the sake of it. 51% say they prefer bots when they want immediate service, and 69% of those who prefer human agents say they'd switch to self-service if it could fully resolve their issue.

I think this makes the case stronger. Your clients aren't asking for a fluffy version of service. They want to be understood and helped. A script gives them neither. A sense of service gives them both.

Why this matters for you, now

You might think in a world full of automation, service would get more standardized. I’d argue the opposite. Anything that can be scripted can now be done by something that isn't a person. The script is exactly what's being automated away.

So, what can't be automated? You noticing the subtleties.  You bringing years of real expertise into the conversation. You caring enough to find the meeting point between what you know and what your client needs or wants.

About half way through my career behind the chair,  I remember a client coming in with dark brown hair asking to be blond.  This was not going to be an easy, fast or inexpensive task.  Before jumping into all of the technical details, I sat down in front of her and asked her what prompted her wanting to suddenly be blond. 
She looked at me, and said she was feeling old, and wanted to feel younger.
This prompted some laughter, (I was younger and blond at the time) and it opened a conversation to what would actually make her look and feel younger; spoiler: it wasn’t blond.  I actually still see this client now and again 20+ years later and it still causes us to giggle about that time when she thought blond would make her younger.

Try this next time

Pick one line from your usual script and replace it with a real question. Instead of 'how can I help?'  Try 'What would make you really happy walking out of here?'

Then actually listen to the answer. Notice what they need, and notice what you need to do your best work. That's where it starts.

That’s a sense of service. And really, it was always the part that mattered most.

If this resonated, I'd love to hear where you've felt the pull between the script and the real thing. And if you're ready to explore this more deeply, you'll find me at: georgiareynolds.ca.