New Generation Employees Just Don’t Get It
Let me start by saying, this is not an isolated incident. I know I am not the only one who has been feeling some frustration when it comes to the service industry as a whole, from food to retail, employees are not getting the message that the customer is
always right, even when they are wrong!
I recently pulled through a popular fast food chain’s drive through and was greeted by an automated message thanking me for coming back. To this day, I cannot figure out for the life of how that recorded voice knew I had been there before. They must have eyes everywhere.
After I determined I wasn’t being followed, I ordered a simple plain, latte. No muss, no fuss, simple and quick. As I moved through the line, I readied my payment. With a smile on my face, I handed the girl my money and she grunted as she closed the window. She reappeared moments later with my change. She shoved the coins into my hand and slammed the window closed. No “thank you” or “have a nice day” or even “your change is…” I shrugged it off and waited with the other sheople ahead of me to finish their transactions. I finally made it to my destination, in sweet anticipation of a warm cup of coffee. This time when the lovely frown of the next unhappy fast food worker came into view, I was directed to pull into “number 1” to wait for my medium cup of coffee.
Now after all of this waiting and all of this excitement over my afternoon pick-me-up, I was in no mood at this point to wait any longer. I look the young lady square in the eye and said, “No thank you, I prefer to wait here.” She stopped and her eyes got as big as dinner plates, she looked at her manager and in the softest, meekest voice, said, “she wants to wait here…” they both looked bewildered, as if no one had ever “opted-out” of waiting in the secondary holding pen. Neither one said a thing. The window closed, and in a couple minutes, she reappeared with my latte. Still no smile, no sense of what customer service is all about. I again made forced eye contact with her and reminded her that no matter how busy you are, there is no excuse for poor customer service. I then drove away. I contemplated that experience throughout the rest of the day and on until today. I have still not been able to reconcile their action and lack of enthusiasm for their jobs.
Do people today not realize who is paying their paychecks? It is not the manager who holds you to a schedule, it is not the owner whose name is on the side of the building.
It is the patron that pays the bills. The new and returning customers are who allow the owner, whose name is on the building, to hire that manager that makes you keep a schedule because there is enough revenue flowing to justify paying you to make change and hand me a coffee!
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