I've been thinking about patron service a lot lately.
We're on spring break this week, here at Lincoln, and between preparing a Music and Dance Libguide and working the LP collection, the lack of decent inexpensive restaurants nearby has me going (too) often to the McDonald's in the next town. Two recent experiences make me wonder about the level of people providing customer service these days.
1) I was at one Mickey D's last Sunday evening. They had a (presumably) new self-service kiosk, the first one I've seen outside of Wawa and Sonic. The line at the counter had more than a few customers so I tried it out. Everything was explained on the screen, and I ordered a McChicken and a coke, grabbed a table ID tag, and went to a table and waited for them to bring my food. I watched a party of five order at the counter, grab their drinks, sit down and get served while my one sandwich (and no drink) sat at the counter...and sat...and sat. If I hadn't flagged down the counter person while she was delivering to the party of five, I might still be sitting there. I showed her my receipt (and, I will confess, my annoyance) and she retrieved my sandwich.
"where's my drink?"
"oh, you get your cup at the counter"
"but I didn't go to the counter, I ordered at the kiosk"
"oh--what did you have?"
Sigh.
I finally received both items, but my conclusion is that the counter help was either 1) new and undertrained or 2) severely undertrained. In any event, they were understaffed and undertrained. I promptly took the survey offered on the receipt. I have yet to hear back from them.
2) Another Mickey D, closer to work, this morning. I got in line behind half a dozen people with--you guessed it--one person at the counter. After she took the order for a group of five, she left the counter unattended for (in McDonalds time) what seemed like forever. Her back was to the waiting customers nearly the entire time. Didn't say anything this time. Got my food, sat and ate, went to work. Neglectful? Maybe. Understaffed? Definitely, and this was at 8 am--peak hours for breakfast in my estimation.
A third experience at our local chain grocer (Giant, not to be confused with Giant Eagle) was not the first time I've had trouble with them. Between inaccurate signage, poor quality food (frozen chicken wings with razor-sharp shards of bone), and just plain rude behavior have me going to a competitor. Yes, I filled out their survey too, and have yet to hear back from them. Maybe I've used up my lifetime supply of good will.
Yet another: Stopped at the Red Roof Inn in Cranberry PA for a room for the night with my wife and adult daughter.
Me: I need a room for three adults.
Them: Will that be one bed or two?
+
EWWWWW...
Look--I get that service jobs, especially in the fast food and retail industry, are thankless and low-paying, and that you're subjected to the worst, cruelest, and condescending in human behavior. I've been there, I know. They're entry level, and ideally should lead to bigger and better things within a given company. Even if they don't, trainers and training managers--all managers, really--need to take training their people seriously. Don't wait for your corporate office to mandate how to be nice, how to be considerate, how to take customers issues seriously (or with a grain of salt in many cases). Too many generations of parents expected that of the public schools and look at how that turned out. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett was right--K-12 education (and by extension, corporate training programs) aren't a one-stop solution where all of society's problems can be fixed.
Here's some simple rules to follow:
1) don't assume.
2) answer questions as though it's the first time you've been asked that day (thank you Disney).
3) treat people the way you would want to be treated.
4) don't make excuses. just do your job. rattling off a litany of excuses just rubs salt in the wound created by having a negative outcome in your transaction.
Now get off my lawn!
Onward.
*--Justin Moore, Off the Beaten Path, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment