RealitySells

Good Customer Service Does Not Involve Tazing by Bill Guertin

I went in for office supplies.  What I got was a surprise at the cash register. --------------

I like office supply stores.  I dont know why.  Maybe it’s all the business possibilities that exist down every aisle; cool presentation ideas here, new software there, office furniture, paper products.  Its just cool.

Apparently not everyone shares the same sentiment that I do.

I needed a few things for a presentation I was making, and stopped at my local office supply superstore.  I presented a business check for what I was buying, and the cashier, a young man in his early 20s, asked me for my business phone number. 

Not a problem.  I gave it to him, smiling. 

He shook his head.  *Youre the first person Ive asked today that hasnt yelled at me for asking for their phone number,* he said. 

*Hey, youre just doing your job.  People shouldnt yell at you for that,* I said sympathetically.

*Yeah, well, Im so out of here soon.  I just put me application in at the detention center,* he said with a strange sort of enthusiasm. 

I could not see where working with prisoners all day could even be compared to working in my favorite kind of store.  I tilted my head, looked at him and said, *Yknow, prisoners are sort of like customers in the detention center.  You still have to be nice to them, and sometimes theyre not going to be very nice to you.*

*Yeah,* he said with a wicked grin, *but I cant TAZE customers here.*

The challenge for all of us in serving others greatly is knowing that they get to judge you, and you dont get to judge them.  My office supply store cashier friend has some work to do in figuring that out.  It sounds like the detention center is the perfect opportunity for him to work out his customer issues. 

I hope the county hires him before his store starts selling Tazers as holiday stocking-stuffers.