A Lesson in Customer Service

Customer service: this was the game of the day and I was on the receiving end.

It all started in a large department store when Amy and I detoured to look at another computer for the desk. Our old desktop is ancient and recently gave up any thought of productivity. We looked at a few that had possibility and when I finally found someone to help us, she wasn't much help at all. She was more like the babysitter for the area, answering a basic question, but not much real help was offered.
We left without purchasing a computer.

Here is a simple but powerful rule: always give people more than what they expect to get.
Nelson Boswell

Then,  we continued throughout the rest of the store, gathering breakfast items, fruit, vegetables and milk before ending up in the shortest line we could find that was not a "self check-out" line. Those self scanners don't get along with me and I always end up needing help. Always. It does not save time. 

So there we were in line and before I knew it, our cashier had me singing (in my head) "Hey Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind…Hey Mickey!" I don't know the rest of the song, and maybe that's a good thing, but that one line was in my head as our cashier, Mickey, checked our items and bagged the items.   

Mickey was personable. Friendly and talkative, but always appropriate and doing her work at the same time. Efficient. She went above and beyond to make sure my groceries were packed in bags the best that they could be. My bread was not squashed, my grapes weren't either. You could tell, she enjoyed serving us. And if she didn't? She certainly made it believable. 

“Service, in short, is not what you do, but who you are. It is a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do, if you are to bring it to your customer interactions
Betsy Sanders

After we left there, Amy and I headed to her orthodontist appointment. Once her braces were adjusted, green rubber bands in place, we checked out. Asking the doctor a few questions though was just enough reason to disrupt the normal flow of checkout. The receptionist forgot to schedule our next appointment and she forgot to give Amy a school excuse. Now, she was very nice and really friendly, but having to turn the car around to go back and get a note for the school so Amy could play volleyball tonight, was quite inconvenient.

         Well done is better than well said.~Benjamin Franklin

My day as a customer continued at Sheetz (breakfast sandwich for Amy, coffee for me) where they gave us half the order and we had to wait while they looked around in confusion as to who had "#194". Umm, that's us. Then it was on to NAPA Auto parts (new brakes, again!) and then I finished the evening at the volleyball game, when we paid for our admission and offered a discounted season pass. 

At each stop along my day, I thought about how each person was there to serve the customer, and on this day, it was me. Some left me with a smile, some left me wondering "why?" and others just gave me a reminder that we are all human and we all need grace. 

It left me wondering what kind of customer service I provide, not just on my job, but in my every day life. As a mom, as a wife, as a sister, a daughter, a friend. Do I listen? Do I genuinely care? Do I let my every emotion show on my face when some are better left hidden? Do I judge unfairly? Do I put myself in their shoes, their situation? Yes, it left me wondering. 

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care” 
― John C. Maxwell

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echos are truly endless ~Mother Teresa

Love,

Dianne