WENATCHEE — Be friendly but not phony.

That’s the new yardstick for measuring customer service skills that solve a patron’s problems, meet a client’s needs or bring satisfied shoppers back again and again, a visiting consultant told tourism and retail employees in a series of workshops here in April.

“We’re teaching people to build rapport in a whole new way,” said Pamela Ziemann, a Bellevue-based leadership development coach who teaches the fundamentals of SuperHost, a training program for front-line customer service employees. Her appearance here was coordinated by SkillSource, the Wenatchee center for job training and education.

“The customer really wants to be seen for the person they are,” said Ziemann, “not just another unit in a long line — an assembly line — of potential spenders.”

In four days at three Chelan County locations, Ziemann taught more than 80 local employees from a cross-section of businesses in the tourism and retail industries. Participants heard tips and lessons on effective communication, the power of listening, proven methods to “wow” customers and even pointers on how to remember names.

The workshops — held in Chelan, Leavenworth and Wenatchee — were kept small (fewer than 25 attendees) so presenters could focus on individual needs and provide lots of practice sessions, said Judy Leu, a training and business services consultant with SkillSource.

“We not only learned the skills,” she said, “but we applied what we learned — it’s the best way to retain newly-taught lessons.”

The presentation’s main thrust is to focus on and listen to the customer, said Ziemann. “Here’s the key: be real, be present, be here right now. Look the customer in the eye and let them know you’re listening and there to help.”

She added, “Yes, good customer service includes being joyful and having a great attitude. But you can’t fake it anymore. Customers pick up on that kind of phoniness almost immediately.”

Leu said the series of workshops was only the beginning of efforts by a broad range of Chelan and Douglas county industries to improve customer service skills. “We’re hoping to bring back this workshop again and again.”