Customer service

“All successful businesses pay attention to customer service. As without your customers you have no business. The higher the level of satisfaction a customer has is one of the determining factors in the success of any business.” Catherine Pulsifer

Nothing irks me more than poor customer service. It aggravates me to no end when I have to wait an inordinate amount of time due to the ineptness of some employee.

I will (reluctantly I admit) put up with waiting if I perceive that the person in charge is doing the best he/she can do. But it absolutely drives me crazy if I feel that some “schmo” is not up to the job.

This morning I went to a local Safeway store to do a little grocery shopping. I went there out of convenience. The store is close by and it has a good array of products. But unfortunately, convenience is often synonymous with poor or inexistent service.

When in a supermarket, after your shopping is done, you ultimately have to pick a cash register line. Your goal is to get out of the store as quickly as possible and go about your business.

You gauge the people (and their caddies) waiting in the different lines, the employees in charge and you place your bet: you pick a line. But many things can go wrong. You can have pesky customers, a slow cash register handler or both.

My cash register jockey this morning happened to be an elderly black woman who was either very inexperienced or brain-dead. It also looked like that she desperately needed a pair of glasses. She was so agonizingly slow that I felt like screaming.

Some people should never be in a position to interact with a customer. You could be a great chef, a great mechanic or an outstanding engineer, but this alone does not qualify you for dealing with the public.

If you lack personal skills but are efficient, that will work for me. If on the other hand you are not up to speed but have an engaging personality, this will also win me over. But it you lack both qualities, we are in a confrontational course; it is more than probable that I will never deal with your business again.

In Marin County by the way, I highly recommend a hardware store called Pini. It has the best customer service anyone could wish for. In a perfect world, all stores would be Pini clones.

Dealing with the public is a difficult job. If you don’t have the inherent skills, don’t go against the grain. Become a prison guard, a fisherman or join the Marines but don’t interact with (often difficult) paying customers.

Alain