“When it rains, I let it.” This is a statement is contributed to a 113 year old man when someone ask him what was the secret to his longevity. It is a simple premise, “don’t sweat the small stuff” is a currently popular saying, followed up with “and it’s all small stuff.” But how often do we sweat the small stuff, or try and stop the rain?
We have all worried about things that are really out of our control when we stop and be honest about everything. Most of us began with worrying about little things like will he or she like me, will I find a good job, will I make a lot of money? At the time they were all valid question. But as we grow and mature we realize these things are not as important as happiness.
Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” What a profound comment in my opinion. We chose the path of life we take when it comes to our happiness. If we chose to be a happy person it is because we stepped out in our mind and made the decision we deserved to be happy.
What does any of this have to do with customer service? Simple, if your customers see you’re happy to see them and your excitement to work for them they will come back because it made them happy! It was a pleasant experience! If you have an unhappy experience are you likely to repeat that situation? When it comes to customer service it depends on how we were treated. If you’re problem is acknowledged and dealt with a positive attitude it will turn the experience around and make it a positive one.
I was recently in a business to have service done to my vehicle. Now I was out of town so returning to this location is highly unlikely. However, I didn’t have an unfavorable experience. The customer in front of me did. He parked his vehicle and came into the lobby area and asked for the manager. He was informed the young lady behind the counter was the manager by an employee that happen to be in the lobby. This customer was dissatisfied with the attitude presented by the young lady behind the counter. This is where things went terribly wrong. The employee that happen to be in the lobby cut the customer off prior to the customer being able to express his feelings and be heard. The young man, while meaning well, stopped the gentlemen from speaking handing him a customer comment card and said just fill this out and it will be sent to the district manager. The customer wasn’t done. The employee left the lobby and the young lady behind the counter had as well left, leaving one person behind the counter, the real manager. She was there trying to paint the area behind the counter. She politely listen to the customer express his displeasure with the other young lady that he was told was the manager and assured her he would not be returning.
Now I sat there thinking of what went wrong here and how would have I handled it differently? I did not witness the young lady present a negative attitude toward the customer. But I did witness the negative reaction to the customer wanting to complain. Later as I was checking out the real manager told the young lady she wasn’t worried about that guy, he was just most likely in a bad mood. Maybe, but that discussion should have not taken place in front of me. And the employee that cut the customer off from being able to express his displeasure compounded the situation but not allowing the customer the voice to be heard.
The real manager did not offer to the customer the satisfaction of knowing the young lady would be counseled in her negative attitude. She reply was "Well, I am sorry." As I said if the young lady really had a negative attitude I don’t know. But as we have heard many times, the customer is always right.
In my mind it would have taken less effort to turn this situation around and kept the customer a customer. Allow the customer to speak and be heard. Assure the customer the situation will be handled.
Instead they tried to stop the rain when the customer complained. They put up a defensive umbrella and shielded themselves from the rain. So when you see the cloud darkening and you know it’s going to rain, let it. If you deal with it correctly it will help your plants (customers) grow.
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