Don’t spoil anyone’s first time
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While I don’t envy the dedicated folks who staff the security lanes at our nation’s airports, I’ve observed a tendency for many of them to do something unfortunately common among people with customer contact roles.
I find myself in those security lanes a few times each year, and I’m always struck by the degree to which the setups and procedures vary — not only by airport, but even at the same location several months apart. This time, I’m allowed to leave my laptop in my backpack as I send it into the x-ray machine. Next time, I’ll be told to remove it. This time, I’m ordered to leave my belt on. Last time, I had to take it off.
Now, I fully understand that security procedures need to change along with the nature of potential threats and as better screening technology becomes available. I also understand just how trying it can be to deal with the traveling public, especially in the high-stress environment of thousands of people who really should have left home an hour earlier.
Time and again, though, I watch these security agents snap at passengers for being unaware of this week’s set of rules and procedures. When I get in line, I don’t realize that the rule at this particular airport on this particular afternoon is for laptops to go in white bins and everything else to go in gray ones. I foolishly place my laptop in a gray bin and am immediately met with a furious rebuke from the nearest agent. “Laptops belong in white bins!”
I realize I’m likely the 4,000th ill-informed idiot the agent has encountered today. If I had to explain that the white bins are for laptops 4,000 times in the course of an afternoon, I might also have trouble sharing that direction with a sunny tone of voice. But here’s the thing: no matter how many times the agent has explained that instruction to passengers just this afternoon, I’m hearing it for the very first time in my life. I don’t deserve to be scolded because I wasn’t present for the previous 3,999 times they said it.
Perhaps you’re assuming I’m unwittingly the one in need of an attitude adjustment. Well, I work very hard to treat people in those customer contact roles with courtesy and grace. In my younger days, I worked in a number of those roles in retail and restaurants, and I’ll confirm that a surprisingly large percentage of folks are anything but friendly and cooperative. I deliberately greet those agents (and restaurant servers, and bank tellers, and bus drivers, and medical office receptionists) with a friendly smile and wishes for a good afternoon, because I know their typical day involves dealing with too many unpleasant people and I don’t want to be one of them.
Think of the number of times you’ve been in a situation for the first time (or in something you do rarely, like renewing your driver’s license) and been treated as though you’d done something terribly wrong or foolish because you just didn’t know any better. Doesn’t matter who you are or what else you may know — you evidently deserve contempt because you hadn’t memorized the correct action or failed to read the “customer focused” individual’s mind. You’re probably remembering a recent situation that illustrates exactly what I’m describing … and I suspect the memory has bumped your blood pressure a bit higher.
Now I want you to look at the situation in the context of your own business and your own contact with customers — or if you’re a manager, how your team deals with those all-important folks who keep your company in business. I’m sure there are things you and your team members find yourselves saying again and again, so often you start repeating them in your dreams. They’re things those customers don’t know or appreciate, no matter how much you wish they did.
So be honest. When you or the people you trust to handle those customer interactions say those things that people are hearing for the very first time, are the messages they’re receiving friendly, helpful, delivered with extreme annoyance and irritation … or even just bored, barely audible mumbling? Are you making those customers feel welcomed or appreciated? What impression of your company will they walk away remembering?
Now think of the last time someone working in one of those roles dazzled you. Maybe it was one of the cashiers at Trader Joe’s (a company that really grasps the importance of delivering true service). Maybe it was the barista who started your day on a sunny note. If you’re really lucky, it may have been an airport agent who gave you direction accompanied by a genuine smile.
Scott Flood creates effective copy for companies and other organizations. To learn more, contact him at sflood@sfwriting.com or 317-839-1739, and visit his blog at sfwriting.com/blog. ©2024 Scott Flood All rights reserved