Patch Blog: Customer Service in Reverse

Have you ever been waiting in line at, let’s just say, a fast food restaurant, and noticed that the staff seemed particularly busy? It’s something we’ve all experienced at least once in our lives, right?

Just the other day, I stopped by a fast food joint to get a cup of tea before spending an hour or two on their WiFi. There were only two people ahead of me, so I figured my simple cup of tea would be an uneventful moment in the hundreds of transactions that would make up this restaurant’s day. 

Boy, was I wrong!

The cashier was obviously new, and she was trying hard to manage without the help of her manager — who was rushing around trying to complete orders for the drive-thru line. The gentleman at the counter completed his order right as a group of five teenagers came in the door and took their place in line behind me. Doing what she was trained to do, the cashier smiled and kept taking orders. 

Notice — I said she kept TAKING orders — not DELIVERING.  It was at this moment when the “pressure cooker” started to whistle. My tea order disintegrated — going from ordinary to giving me that “squirmy” feeling one gets when you seem to be the only one who hears the warning whistle. Could someone please take this pot off the heat? It’s likely to blow at any second!

Then it blew. . .

The man who had just ordered went from Jekyll to Hyde in two seconds flat. He literally snapped his fingers twice at the cashier and yelled, “Are you going to get our coffee or make us wait all day? We’re in a hurry here. Can’t you see that?!”  Yikes! Since the moniker “Mr. Hyde” is already a literary icon, I think I’ll call him “Mr. Mean.”

The cashier went from happy employee to a deer facing down certain doom in the form of a pair of high-beam headlights. Another crew member came to her rescue with two cups of coffee for Mr. Mean, where he was also met with a few choice words meant to spoil his day.

After Mr. Mean walked out, I asked the cashier and her rescuer to stop for a moment. This is what I said to them, “I want to thank you for working hard to get me my order as quickly as you can! I appreciate it, and you guys are doing a great job this morning. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

The look on the employees’ faces brightened immediately, and my tea was “on the house.”  

What happened at that counter was basically reverse customer service. We talk a lot about our values — one of them being “Everyone’s a Customer.” Yes, Mr. Mean was the customer that day, but those employees were also his customer, and they didn’t deserve to have their day derailed by such vitriol. 

Mr. Mean may have felt a moment of power with his angry and insulting behavior directed at a clerk who he knew didn’t dare talk back — but he set the day straight for several of us who witnessed his meltdown. We won’t soon forget that Customer Service is a two-way street.

Verena Somer is an author and a speaker. Read more at www.theserviceadvisors.com