If There’s One Thing
October 27, 2009
Taking breaks during your workday is important, but you should be mindful of the impression you make on your customers.
With layoffs, increasing workloads, and greater responsibility, work can become tiring fairly quickly. Taking regular time off from work, whether in the form of a vacation or a ten-minute coffee break, can make a big difference in your overall attitude. But you still need to be aware of your behavior, particularly when you are around customers.
A few weeks ago I was in the middle of a very busy day of running errands and wasn’t going to be anywhere near home during the day. I had a two-for-one coupon for one of the major fast-food restaurants and stopped in to get some lunch.
I ordered two sandwiches and the clerk rang up the order. When I handed him the coupon, though, he studied it for a moment and then got a concerned look on his face. I watched him as he looked back and forth between the coupon and a laminated sheet that contained all of the current promotional offers. Apparently, my coupon was not on the list.
He walked to the back of the store, presumably to ask his manager how to enter the coupon. The manager answered, in an angry voice loud enough for all of us to hear, “If there’s one thing that makes me angry, it’s being interrupted when I’m eating!”
The manager came up to the counter, clearly annoyed, typed a code into the register, and stormed off to the back room to finish his lunch. The clerk just shrugged his shoulders and gave me an apologetic look. I asked him if his boss usually behaved this way, and he said that what I just saw happens often.
When you are in a customer environment, you always have to be aware of your behavior and your actions, and how the customer may perceive them. So the next time a customer issue interferes with your lunch, try to remember that it’s the customer that helps pay for your meal in the first place.
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