I’m exhausted. I’ve been up and working since 5:30 am. I
gave a presentation in Las Vegas this morning and then immediately flew to
Florida as my Dad had heart surgery this morning. It’s now 3 am. My flight
was delayed, I haven’t had dinner, I’m in a rental car in a new town and the
only food establishment I can even find open is McDonalds. ARGH!
I’m desperate . . . so I take my chances!
As I am reviewing the menu at the drive-up window, the
woman on the other end of the drive-up menu barks out her demand for what I
would like. She mumbles, it’s clear by her attitude that she has no patience
with my need to read the menu to decide what they serve at that hour (is
breakfast an option?) much less wait for me to decide what delicacy I would
like.
She clearly has an “attitude” and with that attitude she
lets me know with no uncertain terms that I have made an incredibly ignorant
statement. All I did was say, “Could I have coffee with that?” and she
abruptly responded with; “I said, we don’t have tea.”
Now, it’s not like she had a lot of customers demanding
her time. I was THE only customer there at that hour! And then worse
attitude started to spew forth.
Oops. She said it to the right person but at the
wrong time. Little did she know with whom she was dealing! She just clearly
had a bad attitude and it was obvious that she had NO TIME for me!
It took me exactly ½ second to unload on her
just what I thought of her attitude! Now I hardly ever just lose it … I
usually go out of my way to capitalize on opportunities to present a different
perspective to individuals. But she was unbelievable!
I pull forward from the ordering window to the
pickup window and mysteriously a man, obviously the manager, was now at that
window. My attitude was obviously cause for concern!
We exchanged a few words and ideas on the impact
that woman left on their customer! All because of her lousy attitude! He
didn’t seem to care much more than she did!
I’m sure everyone has had a similar experience .
. . and with the holidays approaching, people may be a bit edgeier. So it’s a
good time to reflect on the value of our customers, identify our priorities
and then, stick to them!
Never view a customer as an interruption of your
work. Instead, prioritize your efforts by first completing tasks that build
relationships with your customers.
Organize your job duties into two columns:
Column 1 - Activities that build customer
relationships. For example:
-
Greeting customers warmly.
-
Listening to customers.
-
Opening another payment window when there's a line.
-
Answering the phone in 3 rings or less.
-
Placing customers on hold for less than 30 seconds.
-
Returning customer phone calls promptly.
-
Responding to customer emails.
-
Keeping customers updated about product or service changes.
-
Quickly resolving customer complaints.
Column 2 - All other tasks, or, "stuff" that can
be done after the customer's needs have been met. Hot tip:
You can interrupt these tasks anytime a customer needs your attention!
For example:
-
Filing.
-
Preparing invoices.
-
Writing reports.
-
Conducting inventory.
-
Sorting mail.
-
Preparing a report.
-
Making copies.
Remember the following:
