Sunday, July 1, 2007

7-1-07

Great weather this weekend. The Bluefish game went pretty well. Fun time. They won 12-0; the other team (the Road Warriors) made 5 errors. Bad baseball, but a fun time nonetheless. After the game was over, they had: a hula hoop contest (with a professional hula hoop lady), an Irish dance school show, and fireworks. It was quite the place to be.

Today is just an easy, relaxing day. I ran a couple errands earlier; had to buy some work clothes. I grabbed some lunch at Duchess, and I have to say: I wasn't impressed. I've noticed that, maybe it's just in my area, that people have gotten worse at basic customer service. It's almost as if customers are a nuisance. Even at the lowest level job, be it a cashier or a drive-thru server, you need to be nice to customers. If they are put off by being shortchanged (like I was today) without receiving an apology, then they're likely not going to come back (like I won't). All I needed to hear was "Oh, sorry about that." Instead, I got "Oh..." and the guy grabbed some change. BASIC customer service is not too much to ask for, and it's not the first time I've seen this happen, nor will it be the last.

There are two basic reasons to be nice to customers as a cashier or other server, despite the low-paying nature of the job. No, you're not going to make as much money as the manager, but you are the first, and often the only, employee to interact with a customer. Not only can the customer decide not to come back, but they very well might complain.

Maybe it's just my background in the industry, but you always need to be good to the customer.

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