Monday, May 29, 2006
Distracted by my writing
Writing (or outlining chapters) while working the window at the gas station does distract me - it takes my attention elsewhere. It means I pay less attention to customers and am more likely to make errors at the cash register. But I am not going to turn down the muse when she offers me something.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
"My customers"...
More and more, the people I deal with here are not just the gas station's customers, they are my customers - “my people”. Some of the shoddy ways that the old manager handled customer service are just not ok with me:
1) If we advertise free air, then we offer a tire pressure gauge - duh, we are a gas station. His lame excuse that the last one "walked away" just doesn't cut it for me. None of them has "walked away" on me in the couple of months I have been supplying my own. And, if one does occasionally do so, it's just the price of doing business - they are cheap, after all.
2) We sell a ton of cigarettes. I think it's just Customer Service 101 that we stock matches. When the old manager came to know that I was stocking them, he said "It's your money." Let's see - 50 books of matches for 80 cents, I give out an average of one book per shift.... Now the new manager says that it is company policy to not stock matches, in order to sell more lighters - and was uncharacteristically hard-nosed about it. I think he does not want to run afoul of his boss, who is around often enough to hear me offering matches. So I don't offer matches when either of them is around. I have noticed, though, that lots of people, offered the 54-cent Enmark lighter, snap it up. So I think I'll offer the lighter first. If they don't have the 54 cents or say, "Nah, I've got lighters at home" or for whatever reason don't want to buy it, I'll give them a pack of matches. (I have actually been doing this for a while now and like this progression. Sometimes I tell people that I'm supposed to push the lighters. They get it - and really appreciate the extra bit of customer service in giving them the matches.)
1) If we advertise free air, then we offer a tire pressure gauge - duh, we are a gas station. His lame excuse that the last one "walked away" just doesn't cut it for me. None of them has "walked away" on me in the couple of months I have been supplying my own. And, if one does occasionally do so, it's just the price of doing business - they are cheap, after all.
2) We sell a ton of cigarettes. I think it's just Customer Service 101 that we stock matches. When the old manager came to know that I was stocking them, he said "It's your money." Let's see - 50 books of matches for 80 cents, I give out an average of one book per shift.... Now the new manager says that it is company policy to not stock matches, in order to sell more lighters - and was uncharacteristically hard-nosed about it. I think he does not want to run afoul of his boss, who is around often enough to hear me offering matches. So I don't offer matches when either of them is around. I have noticed, though, that lots of people, offered the 54-cent Enmark lighter, snap it up. So I think I'll offer the lighter first. If they don't have the 54 cents or say, "Nah, I've got lighters at home" or for whatever reason don't want to buy it, I'll give them a pack of matches. (I have actually been doing this for a while now and like this progression. Sometimes I tell people that I'm supposed to push the lighters. They get it - and really appreciate the extra bit of customer service in giving them the matches.)
Standing my ground...
Sometimes at the gas station I don’t stand my ground enough.
Today a very impatient, hostile woman leaned in past the two people in line, threw her check on the counter and walked away. I did holler after her that I needed to see her driver’s license (which I’m sure pissed off her impatient ass). A minute later, also while I was waiting on someone else, she returned and threw her license through the window.
I did allow myself to deal with the people at the window before sliding her check through our little electronic check reader to get it authorized (the last step before turning on the pump). While I was doing this, she again appeared at the window, glaring at me. I said that I was at that moment authorizing her check. She, still without a word, stomped back to her car.
I had been fairly assertive by finishing with the people at the window before attending to her check. But I realized from the hollow feeling inside, that I had not stood my ground enough. This woman had been rude and dismissive. I really had, for my own self-respect, to assert what is the boss’s position in these cases. “I don’t take people out of order. You need to come through the line and wait your turn like everybody else.” He backs this up by setting aside the money or check that has been shoved at him and doing nothing with it until the person returns and waits in line. This, inevitably, pisses them off, but it is more respectful of me and the other people waiting in line. And hey, she started pissed off.
When I do stand my ground in this way, I can handle this kind of person’s anger, especially since I am then not surprised by it – I have actually chosen to follow a path that almost guarantees it. But I will not go away from the transaction feeling ill-used.
Similarly, I sometimes I don’t do enough to protect myself from people’s hostility.
Usually at the gas station I do a pretty good job of insulating myself from the stuff people aim at me. Today I had a woman at the window really hollering at me that I had ignored her and was being “very, very rude.”
Most days this would be no problem for me. I knew that I had in no way ignored her and certainly had not been rude. I have learned to not take people’s upset personal. Even if I have made a mistake, hey, out of 400+ transactions per shift, you’re going to make a mistake here and there.
Most people don’t get bent out of shape – they also know that I’m just human and usually can see for themselves how busy the gas station is. Some will even say things like, “I just don’t know how you can handle all this.” If an occasional person chooses instead to give me a hard time, I know that this is about them, not me.
But, with this woman, I didn’t protect myself that well. I had just come on, instantly had long lines at the window, and had not yet found my rhythm. I also was tired and, I guess, kind of vulnerable.
I also knew from this woman’s tone that she was loaded for bear and that nothing I said would appease her. She was going to walk away from the window feeling wronged, no matter what. So, as I very patiently explained to her that I had to take people in the order they came to the window and had not intended to be rude, I knew from past experience that I needed to just stay out of the way and let her have her drama.
But I didn’t. I could feel my discomfort as she ranted at me – I was, at least partly, letting this one in through my protective shield. When I am adequately protected, the nasty transaction is, for me, over when it ends – I let it go and move on.
But this time I didn’t – it stayed with me. The hatred in this woman’s face lingered for me. To be sure, this woman had been especially nasty. But I knew I was hooked as I ran the situation over in my head, vented about it to my boss (who had heard the whole exchange and totally supported me), as I pictured myself telling the woman that I thought she was actually the one being rude (not a great idea), etc.
One of the advantages of meeting anger with anger, or at least crankiness, is that it gives one a forward momentum that provides pretty good protection. But it is also, for many reasons, often not a good strategy. The challenge, then, becomes how to not counter-attack, to simply hold your ground and protect yourself from people’s hostility – to not be a sitting duck.
Today a very impatient, hostile woman leaned in past the two people in line, threw her check on the counter and walked away. I did holler after her that I needed to see her driver’s license (which I’m sure pissed off her impatient ass). A minute later, also while I was waiting on someone else, she returned and threw her license through the window.
I did allow myself to deal with the people at the window before sliding her check through our little electronic check reader to get it authorized (the last step before turning on the pump). While I was doing this, she again appeared at the window, glaring at me. I said that I was at that moment authorizing her check. She, still without a word, stomped back to her car.
I had been fairly assertive by finishing with the people at the window before attending to her check. But I realized from the hollow feeling inside, that I had not stood my ground enough. This woman had been rude and dismissive. I really had, for my own self-respect, to assert what is the boss’s position in these cases. “I don’t take people out of order. You need to come through the line and wait your turn like everybody else.” He backs this up by setting aside the money or check that has been shoved at him and doing nothing with it until the person returns and waits in line. This, inevitably, pisses them off, but it is more respectful of me and the other people waiting in line. And hey, she started pissed off.
When I do stand my ground in this way, I can handle this kind of person’s anger, especially since I am then not surprised by it – I have actually chosen to follow a path that almost guarantees it. But I will not go away from the transaction feeling ill-used.
Similarly, I sometimes I don’t do enough to protect myself from people’s hostility.
Usually at the gas station I do a pretty good job of insulating myself from the stuff people aim at me. Today I had a woman at the window really hollering at me that I had ignored her and was being “very, very rude.”
Most days this would be no problem for me. I knew that I had in no way ignored her and certainly had not been rude. I have learned to not take people’s upset personal. Even if I have made a mistake, hey, out of 400+ transactions per shift, you’re going to make a mistake here and there.
Most people don’t get bent out of shape – they also know that I’m just human and usually can see for themselves how busy the gas station is. Some will even say things like, “I just don’t know how you can handle all this.” If an occasional person chooses instead to give me a hard time, I know that this is about them, not me.
But, with this woman, I didn’t protect myself that well. I had just come on, instantly had long lines at the window, and had not yet found my rhythm. I also was tired and, I guess, kind of vulnerable.
I also knew from this woman’s tone that she was loaded for bear and that nothing I said would appease her. She was going to walk away from the window feeling wronged, no matter what. So, as I very patiently explained to her that I had to take people in the order they came to the window and had not intended to be rude, I knew from past experience that I needed to just stay out of the way and let her have her drama.
But I didn’t. I could feel my discomfort as she ranted at me – I was, at least partly, letting this one in through my protective shield. When I am adequately protected, the nasty transaction is, for me, over when it ends – I let it go and move on.
But this time I didn’t – it stayed with me. The hatred in this woman’s face lingered for me. To be sure, this woman had been especially nasty. But I knew I was hooked as I ran the situation over in my head, vented about it to my boss (who had heard the whole exchange and totally supported me), as I pictured myself telling the woman that I thought she was actually the one being rude (not a great idea), etc.
One of the advantages of meeting anger with anger, or at least crankiness, is that it gives one a forward momentum that provides pretty good protection. But it is also, for many reasons, often not a good strategy. The challenge, then, becomes how to not counter-attack, to simply hold your ground and protect yourself from people’s hostility – to not be a sitting duck.
Losing that spark...
I am definitely getting less fresh in this work. I still light up with my regulars – or attractive women – but otherwise I definitely am getting more automatic. When I am writing (like now), I am definitely still very alive, but not in their direction. Is this inevitable? Is this why people in these roles act so shut-down? But I do have a progressively broader spectrum of regulars to whom I do respond. It's a mixed bag.
What about when we don't connect?
At the gas station there are some guys (mostly, not all) coming back for their change whom I totally do not remember from their first pass, when they came up to pay. I just did not pay attention to them. I greet them as if they have presented for the first time, and sometimes this is obvious. It's a little awkward. But it's just part of the game - not the way I like it to be, but inevitable. I have to simply let it be.
What about the regulars with whom there is no spark – from them or me? We keep interacting in a more formal way, as if we do not know each other. This also seems natural and inevitable. My connections with my regulars are going to run the gamut from friendly to formal.
What about the regulars with whom there is no spark – from them or me? We keep interacting in a more formal way, as if we do not know each other. This also seems natural and inevitable. My connections with my regulars are going to run the gamut from friendly to formal.
Reviving my ACS sites
This blog has obviously layed fallow for quite a while. Now seems like a good time, though, to resuscitate it.
In the time since my last post here, I worked for several weeks as a Mountain Mobility van driver, then over the last two months as a cashier in a hotel gift shop and (simultaneously - two part-time jobs) as a cashier at a gas station. I have now left the hotel job to go full-time at the gas station. This job definitely has its pluses and minuses, but the positives are fairly striking, and have not yet run out of gas (so to speak).
I have written two fun articles on the gas station experience, which are both posted on my Authentic Customer Service home page - a much more structured approach to this same content area. It's a little hard to put a cap on either of these articles, because I just keep getting more data for them - really every day. Maybe I will let them sit for now and bring the new fun stuff to this blog.
That other site is www.home.earthlink.net/~authenticcustomerservice/
Obviously, what will most charge up this blog is to start getting comments from y'all. I'm revising my VistaPrint business cards that refer to these two sites, and intend to start handing them out again.
In the time since my last post here, I worked for several weeks as a Mountain Mobility van driver, then over the last two months as a cashier in a hotel gift shop and (simultaneously - two part-time jobs) as a cashier at a gas station. I have now left the hotel job to go full-time at the gas station. This job definitely has its pluses and minuses, but the positives are fairly striking, and have not yet run out of gas (so to speak).
I have written two fun articles on the gas station experience, which are both posted on my Authentic Customer Service home page - a much more structured approach to this same content area. It's a little hard to put a cap on either of these articles, because I just keep getting more data for them - really every day. Maybe I will let them sit for now and bring the new fun stuff to this blog.
That other site is www.home.earthlink.net/~authenticcustomerservice/
Obviously, what will most charge up this blog is to start getting comments from y'all. I'm revising my VistaPrint business cards that refer to these two sites, and intend to start handing them out again.
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