(Sounds of a checkout counter. A product is scanned. A cashier is making small talk with a customer. She asks if he needs a bag, and their voices begin to fade out as we hear the host speak)
Host: That’s my coworker, Joanne. She’s very good at her job. We work at an upscale pet products store. We have to be a lot of things at work: web developers, dog nutritionists, custodians, but most of all, service workers. I’m not great at that last thing, and I know that because of this email I received from my boss the other day.
V.O (convincingly my boss): “Hi Robert! I know it’s not a crazy busy day, but I must ask that you are attentive to customers in the store. I’ve noted multiple times today where you appear to be reading a book while customers are in the store browsing. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.”
Host: The email came on the same day that my bosses got a complaint about my decorum after I didn’t process a customer’s return— I couldn’t, according to our thirty day return policy. It was a jacket she’d bought in November. I digress, that’s not what this piece is about. I struggle with some interpersonal aspects of my job, but I want to get better, so I interviewed service workers around the city of Chicago about their service training as a way to crowdsource tips for myself.
(Sounds of coffee shop)
Robert: Maybe I’m biased- I’m biased or whatever- but I personally feel like I do great with the customers
Host: That was Robert, a barista at the coffee shop I write at.
Robert: I learned customer service from something called the Zingerman’s Customer Service Method. They’re like a deli chain, sort of, in Michigan. But they have a whole customer service method and they released it in- I don’t know when- but they have little seminars that go around and workshops and stuff that you can send people to.
Host: I looked deeper into the method he referenced, and on the Zingerman's deli website, I found tickets to “The Art of Giving Great Service,” a seminar they’re hosting in May. Unfortunately, it’s far out of my price range at $1,250.00. Luckily, Robert gave me a quick rundown of what he learned.
Robert: “Say hello,” “Find out what they want, slash, get it for them,” and “Go the extra mile.” That’s all you have to do.
Host: Straightforward enough. Step one: say hello—
Robert: I try to just get people more pleased than when they walked up to the register. You know? Like just giving people a really solid “Hello” gets so many people in here. Like they’re surprised they got a nice hello. And already you’ve won them and that’s all it takes. And I like saying hello to people so that’s- that’s all it is.
Logan: (demonstrating service voice) “Hi, how ya doin’? What’s goin’ on?”
Lexi: I was the kindest to customers. I’m always so sweet, I’m a little Southern Belle. I’m like (warmly) “Hi, welcome. Can I help you? Would you like anything? What’s your favorite shoe?”
Logan: Like I wanted to be the cool waiter, um, but only if I was in the mood to be. Like sometimes I would feel like I was really good at my job and I would just go table to table and be like “Hey guys, what’s up?” “What do you wanna eat?” Like, I’d have fun just chattin’ with them. And whenever I made a mistake I would just be like “Oh it’s my first day. Oh silly me! How did you want your eggs?”
Lexi: Moving up here, I like the people a lot more, I like the atmosphere, I found like, most of the customers wanna be nice with you. They wanna genuinely like, have somebody be nice to them. It fulfills me to be nice to people.
Logan: It’s just like, being hospitable. It’s like if you had people coming over for dinner at your house and you were on, like, a lot of Adderall. You’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off.
Host: And this is where a paradox arises in the way that customer service is done successfully. There’s a perceived straightforwardness to getting someone a thing. But when you add things like tips, business bottom line, and regional customs, it becomes much more difficult. We move on to Step Two: Find Out What They Want Slash Get it For Them, but there are many more wants to consider beyond what they leave the store with. Needs of customer comfort— after all, who wants to shop when they’re feeling antagonized? Needs of the employee, and needs of the business.
Trevor: When I first came into the job there was like a- a rule that was said a bunch which was like “If they don’t know what- uh- what to buy oversell them. Always oversell them.”
Devin: I couldn’t come in- Like I was going through a breakup. I just said I was going through a breakup and had to work probably like four days a week over the summer. And I could never really show any type of disinterest in my job. I couldn’t show up feeling like “Oh I’m going through heartbreak right now.” I have to like, sell this bag of Lay’s to this woman who’s trying to tell me about her daughter’s college experience right now, or this man who’s coming in talking about his wife passing away, or like, you know, this woman who wants me to hold her dog while she goes and shops. It felt more like hospitality almost. Than, you know, than food work.
Lexi: Really, like it wasn’t even my manager who taught me to talk the way I did. It was the customers because I had so many instances where people were like “Check your attitude.” But that’s Texas. They will get onto you about manners, especially old people. Like, the more you work, the more you realize how people like to be talked to and really, I guess Texas was the best place for me to learn it because those people are the hardest, in my opinion. I had one lady who demanded that I stop ringing her up and get my manager because she didn’t like the way I was talking to her.
Logan: It’s not that I keep being nice to them, but I stop trying to appeal to them. I’m just like “Okay. Alright.” I put on a mask. All my true expressions get into my eyes. With masks and everything, my face could be whatever. Like, a customer would be so stupid, or would just be so cruel, they would like, give me constipation. Because I can’t be like “Hey. What the fuck?” (chuckles) “What was that?” I have to be like “Mhm. Mhm. Okay. I’ll get you your (disdainfully) Denver-style omelet.”
Devin: I was just in constant avoidance of confrontation with customers, like what they asked I did because I didn’t really have other responsibilities other than to do what the customer asked me to do. It was kind of just like cooperation. What happens if he writes a bad review? Let me just do it, never question the customer, the customer is always right, whatever they ask, you do kind of situation, you know?
Host: With all of this in mind, what is there to add in order to go the proverbial “extra mile?” It’s pretty vague, but is nevertheless a key talking point of an award-winning customer service seminar. The answer might actually be found outside of the store… I also just want to mention that I learned the origin of “go the extra mile” is in reference to a sermon delivered by Jesus Christ: his “Sermon on the Mount” when he said “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” Kind of ironic that a piece of knowledge from The Lord Himself is now an integral part of sales.
Dean: It’s amazing how a personal interaction can transform things in very many different ways. I was talking with someone who’s in the restaurant business the other day about the same thing and about how the way a host seats you, the way a wait person interacts with you can overcome problems with the food if you feel like they’re respecting you and seeing you and making it personal.
Host: That was Dean Corrin, a professor at DePaul University. He studies and teaches classes on interactive theater. His class “Theme Park Theater” is a popular elective offered at The Theater School that explores the way that theme parks immerse visitors in their own realities using conventions of performance. His key place of focus is Disneyland.
(Sound of a roller coaster passing, fade into theme park sounds)
Dean: I think one of the things that happens at Disneyland by personalizing the retail experience is you buy things that seem to make sense in that environment that when you get back to reality you don’t know what in the world you’re gonna do with them. You will buy a shirt that you’re never gonna wear again. My daughter had a thing where she bought— (muttering) the fuck are the name of the, the— (normal voice) the stupid shoes…the plastic shoes…
Host: (off mic) Crocs?
Dean: Crocs! Yes. So, so at Disney my daughter had a thing where she saw these Crocs they were selling that had, you know, Minnie Mouse stuff you could put on them and she’s pushing thirty at this point, it’s not like she’s a twelve year old doing this. And she decided that she wanted these Crocs because of the way they were showing them, the way they were interacting with people, um, and she’s never worn them since.
Host: And for those of us not working at a Disney Park, it happens on a much smaller scale.
(sounds of the retail floor again)
Trevor: And then I also like tried to make the customer- I’d have a fun time with the customers. That went well probably 40% of the time. Like the other- the other- I’d try a joke. People would be paying with Apple Pay and I’d be like “You know Wendy’s doesn’t take Apple Pay” and they’d be like “What?” and I’d be like “Nevermind would you like your receipt printed or emailed?” (chuckles) As a worker, I’m like “This person really needs this conversation right now.”
Host: I leave these interviews having learned more, while also feeling like I’m back at the most rudimentary parts of any social interaction. At the heart of these jobs is adding a little bit of convenience to the lives of customers, but the retail floor must be created to achieve that. So what is the goal? Connection? Bottom line? Both? Is both achievable? It seems that when you know what you want, you can serve customers accordingly. I want to leave off with the idea that even though this line of work serves people, it is not servitude— Each of my interviewees detailed ways to successfully “go the extra mile” without encroaching on their own personal sense of self respect. To end this, I have a quote from JJ, another barista
JJ: I’m glad to see people are like, drawing a line and saying like, “You need to respect us and treat us like a human being if- if you’re gonna walk into the store” kind of thing because I feel like that’s just like, like the base. Like you should have, like, a base respect for everyone.
(Return to the checkout counter. The transaction from the beginning is finished. We hear the cashier hand the customer a receipt and wish him a nice day. He thanks her and leaves the store)
Thank you to everyone who graciously allowed me to interview them for this piece. Image is credited to Gary Hoover via Wikimedia Commons
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