As of August 3rd, I will be a month into my summer baking at the theme park adventure. So far the adventure has tested me in a myriad of ways, and I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying myself.
That said, there are a couple of insights that I've gleaned that I believe are blog-worthy.
Even though I don't deal directly with the public, I still had to go through some of the training classes designed around such interactions. Most of these classes I found to be amusing, mainly because I was in them with so many youngins.
There were a few older adults too, and we usually congregated together, well, us and the homeschool kids, they usually chose to sit with us medium and senior aged people.
Anyway, one of the classes that I attended was about providing an exemplary experience to the guests of the park. Apparently in the post-Covid era, there seems to be a decline in fantastic customer service. During Covid I was still providing plenty of customer service at the library, so many of the scenarios that were covered were things that I have experience both as an experience service provider and as a guest-customer.
That said, during the training, which I have to admit was beyond fun because instead of sitting around we got to act out solutions to bad situations together as small groups, one of the older adults piped up with one of my most hated sayings in the realm of retail ever,
The customer is always right.
Yes, I yelled, because that above sentence has caused no small amount of chaos nation wide. The customer always being assumed right may have actually worked when we had a culture that valued politeness and mutually beneficial interactions, but these days I have found all it does is embolden entitled, selfish behavior.
My personal motto in regards to providing a positive experience is to Do right by the customer.
Years ago we had a training at the library that revolved around Getting to yes. Instead of always trotting out the No we were instructed to try to get to yes. And that's what I love to do. I adore helping people, I love seeing the joy on their faces when you go just a bit beyond even being helpful. Today, I was able to make a little kid's day at the park even a bit better because I heard his mother sadly say, "Oh no, they're out of M&M cookies."
Well, I had a double batch freshly baked and cooling on the racks in the back, I just hadn't had a chance to bag them and take them out to the front yet. I grabbed a bag and plopped a still warm dinner plate sized M&M cookie into it and sped out to the coffee counter to a very surprised mom and son. It made my day.
A lot of people who work in retail or other customer service jobs love to help people, and we get it, sometimes you are having a bad day, but that is no excuse to treat the person who is trying to help you like less than a human.
Because that's when the customer is a hundred percent wrong, when they treat the person who is there to serve them in a dehumanizing manner. I'm a pretty easy going person, but I have made it my mission to speak up against bullying in all it's forms, especially in the public arena.
The kids and adults who work in the park deal with thousands of guests every day, and they work pretty dang hard. Sure there are employees that don't, but my observations have been that those employees are the exception not the rule, and if people continue to be abusive in their interactions, soon there will be even worse lines and service because no one will want to deal with their nonsense.
I should know, after twenty years of dealing with the public I had to take a break. They're exhausting.
And you can bet your last almond croissant that I will strive to not ever evolve into one of those demanding, entitled, rude heathens who seem to exist in every public space these days. That type of behavior lacks in every possible virtue and getting your way is far inferior to making someone's day through kind and thoughtful conduct.
All of the pictures in this post were taken at Honeysuckle Beach at Hayden Lake.
*And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's never conducted any instances of customer service in its existence iPhone.
