Service with a smile… right?
Well, not today!
I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. At least I thought. It was on my giant white board of life. It contains an entire month of our families, activities, appointments and anywhere we need to be, do or remember. If it’s not on the giant white board, guess what… it doesn’t exist!
I arrived at my appointment this morning and was checking in with a woman who had clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She left her smile at home, probably on the night stand. I smiled and said, “good morning, I am here for my 10:30 appointment with Dr So-and-so.”
Her immediate reply, “The Dr. isn’t in until noon.” and then just stared at me.
“Well, I had an appointment scheduled for today… at 10:30… ”
She huffed and swirled around to her computer and pounded in my date of birth.
“Your appointment was last week at this time. You missed it.”
Me, still smiling, “Well I clearly remember it being scheduled for today, because it was the day after my birthday.”
(and I remember thinking it shouldn’t take 2 weeks to schedule an appointment for what I was coming for…)
“Well, the doctor isn’t in, so you’ll have to go down the hall and figure it out with her office.”
(At this point I am chanting what I had been taught since I was a little girl.. KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS)
“Well okay then, I’ll do that, thank you! Have a wonderful day!”
…as she slammed her glass door closed in my face.
She must have missed the memo about providing customer service with a smile.
No service. No smile. No happiness.
I would have preferred to have said something else… but it wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere, clearly. But it may have included shattered glass and lots of screaming, and me forcing someone to smile for goodness sake!
The point is… things don’t always happen the way we plan. We can’t always depend on technology, because we all know that computers are machines, and even they have glitches, break down, and don’t work 100% of the time.
But what we can do, is give our best customer service at all times. We have complete control over how we treat people, and how we talk to them. You represent your business, or the company you work for. When someone has a bad experience, it reflects on you, and your company or business’ name. And do you know how quickly people turn around and talk about a bad experience? So much more often then they do when they have a good one!
(Example: this blog post)
And isn’t it ironic that the Manta Tip of the Day is:
People often equate occupational safety with physical safety. But it’s important to also look at a worker’s mental well-being. Look for apathy (lack of caring), depression, or stress in your employees. These conditions could cause negative impacts to your business and may put your team at risk.
Please please please always remember to give service with a smile. Even if you are wrong, do whatever you can to make it right, and make it pleasant for everyone. Besides, don’t you feel better when you’ve helped make someone’s day brighter, instead of triggering a blog post rant about bad customer service? I know I do!
Today’s takeaways:
- Kill them with kindness
- Customer Service reflects not only on you, but who you work for.
- Make sure a person feels better after they’ve talked with you, not worse.
- Try not to depend completely on technology. It isn’t always right. (My white board is.)
- Don’t react on your first instincts to shatter the glass window and attack the receptionist.
And always remember… Service with a SMILE!
