I just want to tell you a customer service story that I was involved in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know there’s a million cs stories one can tell but this one really got to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see the dynamic in this story now and again and it is something for us to stay on top of as we coach our staff in the art of excellent service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s where the path of least resistance would be good customer service, yet an employee seems to go out of their way in making things more difficult and in the process provides terrible customer service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it’s the “I’m having a bad day and I want company” dynamic. I don’t know but here’s the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m at a big grocery store in the Bay Area. I’m a customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a big urban store that is part of a bigger building, and it is actually kind of hard to figure out how to get into the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I see the front door at the end of a parking garage but in reality, I end up walking down a breezeway that is technically part of the receiving area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An employee of the store comes out of a door and in a confrontational tone says, “What are you doing over here?! This is the loading area. You shouldn’t be here!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in my kindest, most apologetic voice I say I’m sorry. I’m from out of town and I was a little confused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now here’s where the aforementioned dynamic comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The door to enter the grocery store was a straight shot, ten easy steps ahead of me. Right there. The employee told me to go back the way I came…retrace my steps down the breezeway. Go back out and enter the “official” way into the store. Which I finally ended up finding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Got the picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little graceful correcting and maybe, if need be, just escorting me the ten little steps to the door would have made my day, been a great help, and reinforced our mutual humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the kicker of this story, it would have been the path of least resistance. It would have been the easiest thing to do. No ordering me back down the hallway. No standing there making sure I go around and do it the “right way”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see this happening at times. Where we have a rule and we feel that gives us the license and power to drop human kindness and consideration. It’s like, you broke this rule. you’ve stepped outside the customer service zone…you’re now fair game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess what I’d like to say to all our staff is that customer service is not a game of rules. It’s not a game at all. It’s deeper than that. It’s cultivating and nurturing a potential in us all to realize how close we really all are to each other. It’s about warmth and connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in many ways, good customer service is really the easiest way to get through the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easy comes about when we decide to be welcoming and helpful even when a customer requires a little extra effort that is really no big thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our days are challenging enough sometimes without going out of our way to make them even harder on ourselves and our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s my story. Hope you liked it.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just want to tell you a customer service story that I was involved in. I know there’s a million cs stories one can tell but this one really got to me. I see the dynamic in this story now and again and it is something for us to stay on top of as we coach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n
I just want to tell you a customer service story that I was involved in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know there's a million cs stories one can tell but this one really got to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see the dynamic in this story now and again and it is something for us to stay on top of as we coach our staff in the art of excellent service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It's where the path of least resistance would be good customer service, yet an employee seems to go out of their way in making things more difficult and in the process provides terrible customer service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it's the \"I'm having a bad day and I want company\" dynamic. I don't know but here's the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I'm at a big grocery store in the Bay Area. I'm a customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a big urban store that is part of a bigger building, and it is actually kind of hard to figure out how to get into the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I see the front door at the end of a parking garage but in reality, I end up walking down a breezeway that is technically part of the receiving area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An employee of the store comes out of a door and in a confrontational tone says, \"What are you doing over here?! This is the loading area. You shouldn't be here!\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in my kindest, most apologetic voice I say I'm sorry. I'm from out of town and I was a little confused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now here's where the aforementioned dynamic comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The door to enter the grocery store was a straight shot, ten easy steps ahead of me. Right there. The employee told me to go back the way I came...retrace my steps down the breezeway. Go back out and enter the \"official\" way into the store. Which I finally ended up finding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Got the picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little graceful correcting and maybe, if need be, just escorting me the ten little steps to the door would have made my day, been a great help, and reinforced our mutual humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the kicker of this story, it would have been the path of least resistance. It would have been the easiest thing to do. No ordering me back down the hallway. No standing there making sure I go around and do it the \"right way\". <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see this happening at times. Where we have a rule and we feel that gives us the license and power to drop human kindness and consideration. It's like, you broke this rule. you've stepped outside the customer service zone...you're now fair game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess what I'd like to say to all our staff is that customer service is not a game of rules. It's not a game at all. It's deeper than that. It's cultivating and nurturing a potential in us all to realize how close we really all are to each other. It's about warmth and connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in many ways, good customer service is really the easiest way to get through the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easy comes about when we decide to be welcoming and helpful even when a customer requires a little extra effort that is really no big thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our days are challenging enough sometimes without going out of our way to make them even harder on ourselves and our customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There's my story. Hope you liked it.<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[3],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-2002","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-m2m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2007,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2002\/revisions\/2007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=2002"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=2002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}