Appearing to care
We know that your customers will put up with imperfect, but one thing that they'd like in return is for you to care.
Marketers keep making big promises, and organizations struggle to keep those promises. Sooner or later, it leads to a situation where the broken promise arrives on the customer's lap.
In that moment, what the customer wants most is someone to care.
Almost as good: an organization that consistently acts like it cares.
It's a mistake to believe that you actually have to care the way the customer cares, and that anything less means you shouldn't even try. In fact, professionals do emotional labor all the time. They present the best version of their professional self they are capable of.
When Bette Midler shows up on stage in Hello Dolly, the audience would like to believe that she's as engaged and excited as she was on opening night. And she might be. Or not. What matters is that we can't tell.
If you care, that's great. If you don't, at least right now, well, it's your job. That's the hard part.
Acting as if, doing it with effort and consistency, is what your customers need from you.