Why it’s important say “Good job!”

Last year, as part of my “year of adventure,” I started going out of my way to say thank you to someone who waits on me in a retail setting. At least once a week , I try to find an employee at some store I’m at who is doing a good job or goes out of their way to help me or make my shopping experience better.

I literally make it a point to look for someone doing a good job.

I’ve learned that when you do that, you’re likely to find someone who is doing a good job, which generally makes the shopping experience more pleasant than looking for something to bitch about. Which I think is how most of us shop. We expect to long lines, untrained cashiers, mispriced items, the wrong amount of cream in our coffee.

In fact, customers are far more likely  to complain to a store manager than to compliment. But a compliment can go a long way towards boosting someone’s day, and hopefully count when it comes time for a review.

I visit Tim Hortons fairly regularly, and not long ago I wrote a little note to Tim Horton’s corporate and let them know that one of their employees, Chris, does a fantastic job. He knows my voice when I go through the drive thru, knows the dogs, is friendly, gets my coffee right every time, and overall makes the trip through the drive thru a very pleasant experience.

I mentioned it to him a few weeks ago, because I wanted to make sure the note got to his store manager and that Chris got something for it – something in his file, you know, something from his boss that recognized that a customer singled him out for a job well done. Chris hadn’t heard anything.

If you tell me take it up with customer service … that’s exactly what I’m going to do

Understand that I’m not normally a customer service complainer.  Like I write in the letter that follows, I make it a point when I shop to seek out employees who are doing a good job and fill out a customer service card or at least stop a manager and tell them. When you look for good customer service, you find good customer service. And the bad employees often get the attention, while the good ones do their job in obscurity.

But I had an unpleasant experience today at my local megagrocery store, and when the cashier told me I could “take it up with customer service” I can only assume that’s what he actually wanted me to do. In the interests of fairness, I’ve deleted the name of the store and the employees in this post. It could be any store, any where. But you know where I was.

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Dear ***** Customer Service,

I am generally not a shopping complainer. In fact, I make it a point when I shop at your stores to find an employee who is doing a good job and leave a comment in the box or tell a manager what a good job their staff is doing. I figure if you want a pleasant shopping experience you should look for it. But my experience today at the ***** store was unpleasant enough to feel like I needed to bring it to your attention.

I don’t normally shop at that store. My preferred store – for a variety of reasons – is the ***** Rd store. But I needed some essential oils and thought ***** would offer me the most choice.

Saturday at the ***** ***** isn’t the optimal time to shop. But I was pleasantly – and most gratefully, I might add – surprised by the fantastic employees on the floor in the departments where I shopped. From ***** at the Tea Bar to the man stocking the shelves in the specialty foods section to the employees in health and beauty to the chef I grabbed as he walked by. They were all friendly, helpful and not in the least fazed by the Saturday morning chaos around them.

But when I got to the check out, it was a different story. My cashier was friendly and laid back enough, but when I pointed out that he was ringing up the wrong prices and quantities for my items, things went south.

Day 8 of 31 Days of Thank You

I confess: I haven’t necessarily done a thank you ever day. I have sent a few notes; I’m only one or two  behind. Today, though, I did something different. I gave a personal “thank you.”

I spent about an hour wandering around Walmart today. I went in for a new dog bowl, and came out with … well, stuff I wanted but didn’t really need. But it was a nice hour with no dogs and racks of clearance clothing.

My cashier was named Sheree, and she was very sweet, chatty and efficient. She didn’t do anything unusual, she was just very pleasant, paid attention to me rather than chatting with other cashiers, and just made checking out nice. So when I was finished, I went right over to the Customer Service counter to let the manager know that Sheree had done a great job.

The manager was helping someone, so the Customer Service rep said either she could pass on my comment or I could tell him myself – but that she knew the compliment always meant more when the customer said it. No problem, I would wait.

The manager was waiting on a couple who clearly had had problems with their cashier. In fact, when the woman overheard what I was waiting for, she said, “We definitely did not have a good experience with our cashier. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a good experience with a cashier in this store.”

My reply? “That’s why it’s so important that when you do have a good experience, you let them know.”

She nodded and said that she’d never thought about that, but I was right. The other Customer Service rep nodded, too. They get complaints all day, so when I did have my turn with the manager, and I said, “I just want you to know that Sheree on line 8 did a great job today, and whatever you need to do to give her a gold star to two thumbs up, please do”, the manager thanked me repeatedly for taking time to compliment his cashier.

I could have just left the store and sent an email to the manager, and when I saw how long I was going to have to wait I contemplated doing just that. But the truth is that my taking time to wait in line to talk to the manager had a positive effect on the other people in line, the other employees, and even me. It was worth it to give a little  ”positive energy” to everyone.

So how about you? In this 31 Days of Thank You, consider taking a moment to tell a manager what a great job one of his/her employees did. They probably don’t hear that often enough, and you’ll all feel better for it!

Stinky stores and shopping diversions

By and large, I try to stay out of stores. I end up spending money I don’t have to spend on things I really don’t need.

But today I needed to get some paraffin wax refills for my hand dipper thing and the next book in the Stephanie Plum series that I’m reading.

I say “needed” a bit tongue in cheek. I mean, really. Who “needs” books and beauty products?

Anyway, I went to the beauty supply store where I normally get my paraffin wax, and of course, they were not only out of wax but the girl who helped me said they’re likely discontinuing the product I use. Great. I’ve been buying the stuff there so I can get points to get free stuff and now I have points for stuff they won’t be selling anymore. Story of my life.

So I headed to the store where I got the hand dipper thing – let’s just say they sell stuff for your bed and stuff for your bath and stuff beyond that – to see if they had refills.

Well, I walked into the store and was hit with the overpowering stench of what smelled like old fruit and spice. I mean, it was so bad I had to pull my scarf over my head. I thought it was just something in the entryway, so after I got into the towel section I took off the scarf and took a gulp of fresh air. Or rather, more stinky air.

Understand that I’m super sensitive to smells, so I understand that other people might have thought the smell of what was obviously air freshener was pleasant. But the lady next to me said, “Whoa, it does stink in here, doesn’t it?”

Yup. In fact, it was so bad that I grabbed two boxes of paraffin – so I don’t have to go back soon – and ran to the check out with my scarf over my nose.

Right past the clearance stuff, past the stuff on sale, and not even near the aisles where there was other stuff I would have looked at had I been able to breathe.

Like I said, once I get in a store, I spend money.

The check out guy asked me how I was doing.”What is that smell? I can’t even shop,” I explained. “And trust me, I am in the mood to shop. But the smell is so bad I have to leave. ” He asked me if it smelled like grapefruit, because it was probably the stuff they sell to make your closets smell good.

No, it doesn’t smell like grapefruit, and if my closet smelled like that I would hope the homicide detectives were called in to investigate.

Check out guy didn’t even say something like, oh, I don’t know, “Gee, I’m sorry. I hope you come back another time.” Just bagged my wax and sent me on my way.

So I can only assume that my husband called the store and said, “Do something to get her out of that store as soon as possible before I go broke.”

If so? Mission accomplished!

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