It Doesn't Cost A Thing To Smile....

...You Don't have to Pay to Laugh! Those who know me well know that I often ask the question, "what's become of the customer service experience?" Everywhere that provides a service including churches, government and civic organizations, retailers, restaurants, airlines, and the list continues.. have all but abandoned the belief that delighting customer is necessary.

I entered stores and received the, in my opinion, the obnoxious "HOW YOU DOING" yelled at me from across the store or the pass by "let me know if I can help you," that is obviously disingenuous as the sales associate doesn't even stop long enough for you to respond with any type of question. Often these sales associates, manager, and event he security gaurd are soooo consumed with whatever busy task their working on that their core audience, the buyer, is arguably not even a secondary concern. I was in store last week where even the security gaurd was going "go backs" and mark downs durning a peak period. ALL these people are in line patiently waiting, one register is open, and everyone else in the store is running around trying to clean the store so they can leave 5 minutes after the store closes.. cause you know that bus only comes by every :45. Boom, Boom you can get the next one.. I need you to get this line open and ring up this socks so I can keep it moving.

Flight attendants, host/ hosttesses don't have to smile or be pleasent anymore. Dare to questions this and you will be escorted off the plane an blacklisted. This is after spending $800 to fly WITHIN the continental United States! I was in a restaurant somes months ago and a couple was escourted out by the courtesy officer after complaining to the manager about the service they were not receiveing. I guess church prepared us for this.. who didn't go to church with all those mean ass ushers and just generally angry old women? I mean, if you're at a church and the ushers are not mean, we start saying stuff like "these new trendy church, take me back to that old time religion; that's how I got over! I mean who the hell are you to tell me that I cannot chew gum?? I may have a condition!

Blacks in the service industry generally have this attitude that "it is what it is." As I black person being served by a another black person, we're simply supposed to understand. It's one thing is their just hood and they don't know no better but I've seen people do these charachter changes where a black consumer comes in you get a head knod and a, "what's good shawww" whereas when a white person comes in, they get a greating minus the colloquialism and the urban nonverbal communication or the gutteral noises. I guess I am getting old because I've developed this attitude like my parents where I am like I am NOT you homie, or you brother, or you dawg or your dude.. I am here to purchased goods and services. We Continue to allow this familiarity. The flip side is the employee with no personality at all. ...the person who utters not a word during the entire transation except for the occasionally offer to save 10% if you get their high interest store credit card... That seems to be the only thing covered in team meetings is to push those cards.. Having someone ring you up, throw your reciept in the bag and simply walk away is wild, but all to common.

At one point, I atttempted to play devils advocate.. I was standing in line at an Office Depot and there was only one register open. There were about 8 people in line and people where audibly distressed with wait time. To add insult to injury, the young lady had no personality and was extremly short with the customers. Retailers don't pay any real money so they don't retain staff for any period of time and subsequently can't trust anyone.. every two seconds she needed to page a manager to come out and give her a "key turn" for the most basic of stuff. WTF... she got all this money in her draw and she can't void an item she scanned twice?? Shit... Recognizing the young lady looked about 22, I relized that quite possibly she is the single monther of two kids.. she likely had to get up at 6 am, take 3 busses and 2 trains to get those kids to day care and then to work on time. They probably pay her $7.00 and hour and she likely hates her job and possibly her life. While I can appreciate all that.. as Whoopie said in Sister Act 2, honey.. save it for Oprah. We all have issues, mine may differ from yours, but they are just as important to me as yours are to you. We're all dealing with some sort of lack or disparity be in money, booty, attention, etc..

The long and short is people in the service industry are paid actors. You are on stage from the time you clock in, until you clock out. I am not concerned with where your from, what you're going through, complexes with acting white, etc, etc, etc. People can choose to seperate themselves from poor experiences and keep their money.

So get in character!

India.Arie singing There's Hope at her show at Stockholm Jazz Festival, July 2007.