Café Culture
The other day I walked into a café; it was a popular place, there were people crowded around all the tables. Three members of staff were on duty. They were having a long and detailed conversation about a stock-take.
I stood and waited.
I waited and stood.
The staff gave me a good stiff ignoring.
The queue behind me got longer and longer and the members of staff got more animated about their stock.
After a few minutes impatience overcame my English reserve and I coughed (politely) to get their attention. They looked up at me then looked back at their stock list. Finally two of the staff members ambled off and the last one grudgingly turned his attention to me and the burgeoning queue.
An alternative approach
Last year I walked into a furniture showroom. I was flustered and running very late, it was twenty past five on a Saturday evening, the shop was about to close and the man behind the counter had paperwork piled around him, after a long and busy day he was trying to sort out his customers orders before he could go home.
“I’m sorry to bother you” I said, “you look very busy”.
He looked up, gave me a big smile and said “I’m never too busy for a customer sir”.
The point of the story:
This sounds like a lesson in customer service, and it is to a point, but it is also a lesson in management priorities.
Is it more important that your staff sort out:
- the stock
- the filing
- the budgeting
- the appraisals
- the quality audit
- the forthcoming visit from the Chief Executive Officer
Should they fix their internal issues, or, should they focus on the work for the customer?
Rule 1: Prioritise the work
Don’t let anything get in the way of the work for the customer.
Epilogue
The furniture shop was John Lewis. In the last 5 minutes of his day the shop assistant sold me a sofa.
As for the café? I’d like to tell you it went bust, but it was on a cross-channel ferry, the customers have nowhere else to go.
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Read another opinion
Image by hktang
James,
I agree… it’s a management and a training issue. When management puts the focus on the wrong things or doesn’t train employees appropriately, the result is what you witnessed. The John Lewis experience is the way it should always happen, right? The customer in front of you should always be the top priority.
Annette :-)
Well, you would think…
Hi James,
You are right to suggest that we should focus on the work for the customer. But, I don’t think we can blame the employees as they are responding to the conditions and priorities that are set by management and the broader organisation.
Management need to be really clear what messages they are sending their teams, how they will be interpreted, implemented and the impact it will have on attending to customers.
Adrian
I couldn’t agree more Adrian.
There are no bad Indians only bad Chiefs
It maybe a generalisation, but one that holds more often than not
Hello James,
I totally get the whole Customer thing, as you know I write about it.
Whilst from a theoretical perspective it is the customer that matters, this is not so in life as lived by folks in the organisation. In life as lived in organisations what matters is following the rules, keeping managers off your back, and managing the perceptions of those who determine your career: managers.
in one organisation (the ferry) I suspect that the employees are viewed / listened to / treated as resources. Mere resources. Troublesome resources. Stupid or wilful resources. As a result they act accordingly. Used to not being treated as valuable human beings is it any surprise that they do not value customers? I say, no surprise at all.
In the other organisation (John Lewis), it really takes something to get into the organisation. And once folks become members of the organisation they are treated as worthy human beings. Human beings worth investing in – as in education and training. Human beings worth involving in the running of the organisation. Human beings who are called partners and not employees. So no surprise that these partners excel at treating each other and customers well.
All the best,
maz
Maz, you are right, it is no surprise at all.