"It felt as if my wife asked for a divorce!"

"How did you feel when he told you that he is moving to a different department?"

A colleague and mentor casually asked this to the customer standing next to me. What got me (in the most positive way) was the customer's response:

"It felt as if my wife asked for a divorce!"

It was at a small cocktail reception after inviting a handful of customers to our office. Yes, it was after a beer or two. Yes, the customer was joking.

Nevertheless, I felt like this was the best accolade I could receive from a customer whom I supported closely as a Service Manager for two and a half years. Considering that Japanese customers are often quite reserved, it was such a surprise.

It felt heartwarming and proud at the same time.

A few days later, I asked myself, "So, what went well?" Here are four things that came up:

• I cared when I didn't really have to. I was often told things were technically out of my scope. To me, that meant it was an opportunity to give a "gift."
• When something went wrong, I did my best to be present. Even shortening the impact of an issue by a minute or 30 seconds was a win in my book.
• I didn't stop after the issue was resolved. I tried to prevent it from happening again, set up real-time monitoring for faster resolution, or scaled the fix to other customers and regions whenever possible.
• When nothing was "burning," I looked for the flickering embers. I monitored the customer's open cases to spot small problems before they could languish or escalate into major fires.

As I close my chapter as a Service Manager, I feel much gratitude for how rewarding the job has been. I think I will come back to this "divorce" comment whenever I need to prescribe encouragement to myself.

Looking forward to the next chapter now.