Desperately Seeking Service!

I'm tired of it! I know you are too!

Over two years ago my wife and I walked into a Baskin Robbins in Lafayette, hoping to enjoy some ice cream. When we walked in I noticed that we were the only two patrons. One employee was sitting at one of the tables texting away. He might have been on break; I wasn't sure. The other employee, also using her cell phone, was on what was obvious to us to be a personal phone call (I could tell it was a personal phone call because she was using loose language with a splash of vulgarity, and no service-industry employee would EVER talk to a customer like that, right?.....or so I thought--read on).

My wife and I stood there for seven minutes. Seven minutes! Seven minutes, when you're the only two people in the store, is a long time. It was seven minutes before the employee even acknowledged us. Let me clarify "acknowledged us":  this meant the employee terminated her call with a sense of disappointment, grabbed her ice cream scooper and finally made eye contact with us. There was no "can I help you?" nor a "what can I serve you?" We just got a bored, lifeless stare that said to me "customer, will you please hurry up so I can get back to planning my social calendar?" And that is assuming she would even think of us as "customers".

We ordered our ice cream and paid for it. The whole time we were in Baskin Robbins, the entire eleven minutes, these were the only words our "server" uttered to us--"$4.32." Those eloquent words mumbled by a teenage girl at Baskin Robbins summed up our value. We actually felt like we were worth less than that.  I'm not sure if the level of service had anything to do with it, but this particular Baskin Robbins closed its doors for good not long after our encounter.  I never uttered a word to the management, but I can't imagine people were rushing in the doors to get treated like that. 


GETTING SERVED

Ever had your life threatened by a retail employee?

About a year ago I went to the Hit'n'Run on Johnston Street, right near UL Lafayette's campus, to fill up my children's bike tires with air. In need of quarters I went inside to make change at the register. There were a few patrons in front of me and one just after me in line. Behind the "service" counter was a gentleman working the register and a female employee, standing right next to him, on a personal phone call (what do you know?). Again, you can always tell the personal phone calls because of the vulgarity (I heard "suck" and "sh@#" flying with some regularity).

As my turn approached, the gentleman service worker closed the register. A millisecond after the register was closed I asked, "Can I have some quarters?" as I held up my two one-dollar bills. The gentleman apparently did not have the authority to open the register, so he tried to get the attention of the female employee, who had the power to open the register.  I can only assume she was the shift supervisor.  But she was still on her personal phone call. He called her name several times, and finally after she abruptly put her hand over the phone's speaker, asked "what's the problem?" The gentleman said, "He needs some quarters. Can you open the register?" She very rudely said, "Tough! He's gonna have to buy something!" Of course this was loud enough for everyone in the convenience store to hear, and she used the ever-popular tactic of talking to me through another employee.

And she went right back to the call.

Most of the times I'm pretty tolerant of company policies. I know there is very little that front-line employees can do about them, however far-fetched they may be. I respect them, if they are explained to me in a reasonable and respectable manner.

However, with a head shake of disbelief, not because of the policy, but because of the devalued way I was treated, I stepped to the side and allowed the next person in line to pay for her items. I assumed that once the register was open he could make change for me. The gentleman looked up to see my face of bewilderment. Then he made a crucial mistake--he got involved and he started a fight. He incited the pinnacle of this service nightmare by saying to the female employee, "Ooooh, look how he mad at you, like he's gonna hit you or something!" And then I heard the most belittling, insulting and threatening words I've ever heard from a "service" employee. She promptly paused her call and shouted, "Who? Him? I'd f$#k that boy up!"

You could have heard a pin drop.

There is no way that just happened! The service culture of the Hit 'n'Run, that is designed to value my business, literally threatened to "f$#k" me up.

How did this happen??? I know what you're thinking you would do in that situation. And yes, I did call later to ask to speak to a manager or the owner.  I'm convinced that the employee who answered the phone was the same female employee who threatened me, although I never asked for her name. Here is how the conversation went:

Hit 'n'Run employee: "Hello?"
Me: "Yes, can I speak to your manager?"
Hit 'n'Run employee: "He ain't here."
Me: "When will he be in?
Hit 'n'Run employee: "In a few hours."
Me: "Do you have a number for the owner?"
Hit 'n'Run employee: "You're gonna have to call back later."

Click. She hung up on me.

I know what you think I did next.  Yes, I did call another Hit'n'Run store and I was politely given the name of the owners and their main office phone number. Yes, I did call for them and left messages on their machines. Yes, I did not get a return phone call. Yes, I did call the next day. And the next day. And the next day. Yes, I finally left a message indicating that I had a servicing incident at one of their locations and that I needed to discuss it with them. Yes, one of the owners finally called me the next day. Yes, he apologized. Yes, he assured me that he would deal with the situation. And yes, he assured me that it would (you know what's coming next...) "NEVER happen again!"


IS IT JUST ME?

As I absorbed that experience and a handful of other retail nightmares I had been exposed to over the next few months, I came to a conclusion. And I came to this conclusion after thinking about my own experiences as a retail employee. Here's what I concluded--every front-line employee in a retail setting has "issues". They all do. They all bring their experiences, their life struggles, their "drama", their vernaculars, their habits, their virtues and their vices, and it's all dumped into one melting pot that becomes a company's service identity, or culture. However, whether or not drama affects you is 100% up to the manager and owner! There is no way around it--the manager/owner's ability to hold their service team members accountable will ultimately determine the culture, success and profitability of a company. You can have policies in place: "no cell phones at work", "no personal phone calls", "always greet the customer", etc. You can have all of these policies and you can state that these policies are the minimum standards for employee behaviors. You can even threaten to fire employees if they fail to follow them. But if you don't follow through, it's just talk. And no one respects talk.

I'm pretty sure that the manager/owner of Baskin Robbins didn't tell his employees: "Now when customers walk in, be sure that you ignore them. In fact, call someone on your cell phone and have a long conversation with them, just to avoid talking to them. When you finally have to get off the phone, don't speak to them; make the customer talk first. All the customer wants to hear is the amount they owe you. Don't ever lower yourself to thank them; after all, we're doing them a favor. And don't bother to offer them an additional scoop for more money; we don't want to sell ALL of our ice cream! And remember, if you're on a break and you see your clocked-in, fellow employee, desperately trying to avoid waiting on the customer, keep texting away; avoid waiting on them at all costs! Now go take some money out of the register and put it in your pockets!"
That's probably not what he tells employees in their new-hire training. But by not inspecting his employees behaviors and holding them accountable, he might as well have said that. Because the front-line employee is in it for themselves. They will follow the path of least resistance to barely keep their job and still get to do everything they want to do. Nothing personal; you just don't mean anything to them.

But I don't have to know that I don't mean anything to you.  Come on, fool me!  It's not that hard.  Make me believe that my business is important to you!

Managers and owners, this is your fault! And I'm saying this as someone who has years upon years of retail management experience. It's my fault too. If my front line employee gave you bad service, it's on me! I should have never let it get to that point. I didn't hold up my end of the bargain.


AT YOUR SERVICE

So to help us all be accountable for our service, I am here to help. I hear so many times that it's impossible to know what my employees are doing at all times. Well, this is how I'm going to help you--I'm going to let you know! I'm going to write about my service experience at your business. I'm not going to evaluate your products or your costs; I just going to let you know the behaviors of your employees. Not fair, you say? That's just my opinion, you say?  I'm a snitch?  I'm a spy?  Well, guess what? My opinion is the one that counts! And every customer's opinion--they count too! My perception is your reality.

Chew on that for a minute:  MY PERCEPTION IS YOUR REALITY.

My perception of your level of service determines whether or not I will do business with you--which becomes YOUR REALITY. Dig it?


SERVICE--THE SALT OF THE EARTH

I had this idea about a year ago to write a column in the newspaper or blog about this topic, but I never pulled the trigger. I was tempted a few times, but the demands of my family and job kept it nothing more than an idea. Here's the straw that broke the camel's back...

Last Sunday, my sister-in-law and I headed into the town of Eunice in search of some rock salt and ice to make the family some good ol' fashioned homemade ice cream. We stopped at the Dollar General on Hwy 190 (the one right across from Ray's Bakery, if you're keeping track). We walked inside and saw the line at the counter was a little deep, so we decided to search for it ourselves. The cashier was very friendly; she made small talk with the customers. I remember a significant smile on her face.

We scoured a half a dozen aisles or so, until we saw a DG employee sitting on the floor as she was stocking the lower shelves of an aisle. My sister-in-law asked her if she had any rock salt? The employee looked up at her...eventually...and (I'm not making this up) proceeded to take her earphones out (the ones plugged into her iPhone that was playing her favorite "stocking music") and nod at us as if she acknowledged us. Without a word being uttered from her mouth, she made a face that said we were absolute fools to ever think a Dollar General would sell rock salt. Before we turned to walk out, she already had one earphone back in and the other one was on its way back.  She must have thought "I can't believe some people!  Now, what song was I on?" We eventually found some rock salt and ice at the Winn Dixie in Eunice. I wasn't wow-ed by the service, but at least I wasn't insulted.

I'm OK with mediocre service. Let me rephrase that--I can TOLERATE mediocre service. But employee apathy and failing to acknowledge the customer's role in a job just bothers me. And most people have trouble supporting a business when it bothers them.

I know that I can't be the only one that feels this way. Please tell me you feel this way too!

So in an effort to make the world, hopefully, a more respectable place to do commerce, I'm going to write about my service experiences, good or bad, here for you. I won't use employee names unless they tell me their names. I will try my best not to get personal. I will try to keep exaggerations to an absolute minimum. I can't say I won't be colorful, because after all, this has got to be something you would want to read, right? But above all, I will try to paint a picture of how I honestly felt at a particular retail establishment.

So, here I am, Acadiana! At your service!