I guarantee that using these four words will change your life. The best part is that you can use this phrase everyday if you wanted to. We come into contact with new people all the time. Next time you go to the store, genuinely ask the person who’s helping you, “How are you doing?” I guarantee you will get the best customer service in the world. Be prepared to talk about where you’re from, your family, the weather, anything can come up.
This happened to me in California the other week. I was there for a friend’s wedding, and I rented a car to get around for the weekend. The rental was supposed to last 24 hours, so I needed to return the car at 8:30p on a Friday night. The wedding reception started at 7pm. I could have cut it short and leave early, so I could have returned the car late. The reception was super fun with tons of dancing, so I stayed late.
The airport wasn’t far away from the church, but I didn’t end up getting there until about 10:00pm. I pulled up to return the car to Alamo. Since I just came from the reception, I was still dressed in my suit and wearing a boutonnière. Feeling pretty good, I got out of the car and genuinely asked the guy how he was doing that night. He said he was doing fine. The guy checked in my car, and he told me that they had to charge me $30 for 2 extra hours. I was feeling good, so I said that was fine to charge it to my Amex. I apologized to the attendant, and told him that my friend’s wedding reception ran late. I don’t know if the guy felt sorry for me or maybe he thought I was nice. He said that he was going to wave the 2-hour charge! I saved $30 just because I was nice to the guy.
Lesson learned: you never know what you’re going to get just by being nice.