Brand New Buzz

The other night I was sitting in Starbucks waiting for a friend. A “customer service moment” happened, and not a good one. There was an older gentleman sitting at a table ready a New York Times paper with a magnifying glass. At the same time, two of the employees were doing what appeared to be standard practice at 6pm, which was cleaning the cafe. One woman was carrying out the kitchen mats which were all stacked up. I have carried these mats and they are heavy and a pain to deal with when you are tired. The other woman was mopping the floor.

A bit of time passed and the older man folded up the paper, and asked–yelled–the woman stacking the mats, if she would call him a cab. She replied a disgruntled ‘yes’, and went about her business. The reason the older man yelled the question was, as he explained later, he was hard of hearing. He didn’t hear the disgruntled ‘yes’. So when the woman came back, he asked her again. And this annoyed her. She replied in a very condescending manner, that yes she would call a cab for him, as soon as she was finished with what she was doing. I thought about this for a moment.

I mean, just by looking at the gentleman you could see that he had had a long life, a lot of experience. He could not hear well, could not see well, and as he moved from his table to a chair next to me so he could better look out for the cab, he could not walk well either. The one woman had been rude, and the other woman mopping the floor moved to the far end of the cafe, seemingly to avoid becoming involved in the situation. The man sat down, and explained to me–he wasn’t shy–that he was just worried about getting stranded there. I have worked in the service industry, just as does Steve Barbarich, and I know what good customer service is. But more so than that, I just know what it is to see another human being.

What these women saw at first glance a cranky, old man who was yelling at them. And they didn’t take the time to see anything more. He was a nice man, only yelling because he couldn’t hear himself talk. So I got out my cell phone and called AAA Cab Company. My friend showed up just then, so I told the employees not to worry about the phone call for the cab, that it was already made and they could continue cleaning. I said goodbye to man, and he said thank you. I won’t ever forget his face.

Related posts:

1. The Positive Effects of Good Customer Service
2. The Importance of Customer Service
3. Customer Service Important For Any Business
4. Internet and In Person Customer Service
5. The Starbucks Brand is Struggling