Well you should have said so.
Betsy Cow had to go and get a new bank card today, and she wasn’t happy about it….
As I approached the touch screen to make my selection, an employee with a smile so wide, it could only have been created by a head office memo, stepped in front of me.
“Can I help you?” Beamed the employee.
“Just trying to find a soft spot in the floor here, got a couple of holes I need to dig.” Betsy Cow.
[Enforced laughter, obviously memo driven, hard to do though memo forced smile]
“I need a replacement ca…”
“New card [buttons pressed], there you go.”
“No I need a replaceme….”
“Yes, new card, just take a seat.”
So I sat down, as it gave me time to count to ten. While sitting there, I kept thinking that I should have seen a teller. After all, that’s what has always happened in the past. So after a few minutes of cudding this over, I decided to see Happy Smiley Memo Reader again.
“Hi, I don’t need a new card, I need to replace the one that is broken.”
“Yes, new card, just wait there.”
“No, not a new card, a replacement card.”
“Oh, you want a replacement card, well why didn’t you say so?”
Now at this point, it would be understandable if the bank had to employ the pop up screens, as any sane person would, at this point, GO BALLISTIC AT THE STUPIDITY.
But I didn’t.
You see, this is a problem in society these days. Everything needs to be done as quickly as possible, so you can move onto the next customer. It’s called service, but it is far from it. Instead of listening to what is needed, people just jump at the first chance to an issue they can answer quickly. More often than not though, the issue they are solving is one they created themselves, by simply not taking a few extra seconds to get on the same wavelength.
So if you are someone who works in the service industry, ie, you have to talk to strangers, take a breath and LISTEN. You will find you can do your job a lot easier, and will have less need for a memo induced smile to keep people coming back.
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