I’ve spent the last few months on chemotherapy and have had to visit the chemo clinic every three weeks for four-hour refills. When I arrived for my first treatment, I was scared, having no idea what to expect and was not at all fond of having metal projectiles shoved into my body. I was taken in hand by one of the nurses there, who put me in a chair and then asked me if I had any questions about what was about to happen. My chief question was “What is it going to do to me?” but as nice as the nurse was, she couldn’t peer into my future. But it was nice to be asked. She stuck me and I started to get what felt like eight quarts of chemicals fed into my body.

The nurse checked back with me about every five or so minutes. During the treatment one of my injected chemicals made me freezing cold and the nurse, seeing it, asked if I would like a blanket. “I’d like two,” I said hopefully. She not only brought me blankets—she brought me heated blankets, which helped tremendously.

Each time I have gone to the clinic, another nurse has taken me to a chair, gotten me comfortable and started the drip. I have also had many interactions with the front desk and other nurses in the clinic. As yet, I have not come across one nurse who is not unfailingly polite, helpful, and clearly focused on my needs. Because this has not been my experience with medical professionals (or in retail situations), I asked to speak to the manager of the clinic to find out how she had brought together so many competent customer-focused people. I was able to make an appointment with the manager.

She said that she would interview folks to see if they were kind and if they were listeners. I asked her how she was able to determine this. She said that she could tell if people were listeners in the first five minutes of the interview. If the interviewee interrupted or was clearly more interested in their next comment rather than what the interviewer was saying, she crossed them off. She said determining kindness was more difficult. She said she used a combination of direct questions (Give me a time when your empathy saved a difficult situation.) but also body language. She began moving like a woman in pain, with grimaces and low moans. If the interviewee asked about what was wrong, she won points. If she listened carefully to the interviewer’s explanation of the pain, she won more points. The clinic manager then said that ultimately she listened to what her gut told her about the interviewee. She said that her process required interviewing many more people than similar clinics would interview for similar positions but she also felt she had a good group of people, a sentiment with which I agreed.

I believe there is a huge lesson here for businesspeople. If you hire kind listeners—not just for customer service positions but also for executive, managers, supervisors, line employees, salespeople, warehouse people, you will end up with customer-focused people. It will cost you more interviews. But ask yourself how much non-customer-focused people have already cost your company. JS