The invisible customer gobsmacked — NOT!
Just got back from my favorite grocery store (anonymous) that I have been frequenting for eight years. The cashier at the speedy check-stand was less than pleasant — she was downright rude. This is the first time in eight years that I have had a bad experience/negative encounter at this particular store.
I was so annoyed with her attitude that I did not even wait for my receipt. I walked off in a bit of a huff, anxious to subdue the bubbling cauldron of negativity brewing within. Attitude is everything when it comes to customer service skills. Bad attitudes can spread like a virus. You can’t teach someone to play nice when they don’t want to play at all!
Could it be that she is having a bad night? (It doesn’t matter!)
Cashier: No eye contact, no conversation, and actively inaccessible in providing any form of decent customer service experience.
Me: It is uncomfortable to be at this check-stand. She won’t even look at me. She is staring at the cigarette cartons. She won’t talk to me!
If she is having a bad night, this is NOT my problem. I am the customer. If she is going to be manning the front lines of a business, she needs to make the customer feel, at minimum, the two “W’s.”
- Warm – friendly and responsive
- Welcome – Decent greeting\reception
Get Proactive!
In the past I have directly confronted bad customer service. It has never resolved anything and I am not one who likes to hold up a check out line!
While writing this post I decided that I will be informing the grocery store about this perceived negative customer experience. Not because I want to complain about experiencing bad service, but because I am concerned about how this particular cashier may eventually affect their business. Negativity tends to breed negativity.
An old article by Anna Thibodeaux in CRM Weekly summarized it best: “According to a 2006 survey released by a group within the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a typical business only hears from 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers; the other 96 percent leave quietly. Of that 96 percent, 68 percent never reveal their dissatisfaction because they perceive an attitude of indifference in the owner, manager or employee.
How can companies resolve bad customer service?
- Provide appropriate training on how to provide good customer service
- Provide higher pay rates to employees that excel in customer service
- Pay attention to customer complaints
- Transfer an employee that does not meet good customer service standards (GCSS)
to another position that does not involve direct contact with customers - Teach your employees to make a difference Today!
I hope that this article was helpful and now I am off to contact the company!
Until next time — stay safe online 
attitude, business, customer service, experience, retail, service, Small Business
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