Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: customer service


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A weekday giggle

Last week I needed to mail an oversized envelope so I dropped in to a neighboring town’s post office because it was on my way home from somewhere else. I know this post office always had a line but it’s well staffed and the line usually moves pretty fast. Plus I had nothing pressing for the rest of the afternoon, and I was driving right by it. So what the heck, right?

As expected, once inside I found a long line. I think I was number 6 or 7. There was only one person working the counter, and another person working over to the side under a sign that indicated he was the passport guy.

Each person going up to the counter seemed to have a long transaction, but the guy working in passports was waiting on people out of the front of the line so it was still moving, though more slowly than I expected. More people were coming in behind me, though, and soon the line was almost to the exit door.

Then a woman came in, walked past all of us, up to another door near the counter and rang a doorbell. I wondered what that was all about. 

The guy at the passport counter stopped what he was doing for a customer, saying, “excuse me, that’s the back door I need to go open it.” As he approached the front of the room the woman there, holding a notice of some sort, stepped out and told him she was there to pick up her mail. He looked startled. ”So it wasn’t the back door bell I heard?” ”No she said, it was me. I just want to pick up my mail.”

Now the man is flustered because there’s a long line of people, he has a customer waiting and she just wants to pick up her mail? But, being a nice guy, he goes in back and gets it for her while we all wait. As he hands it off she says “That’s not all of it. There are supposed to be three packages.” ”No, he says, there’s only the one.” ”There are supposed to be three.” ”There was only the one back there.”

People in line are beginning to sigh loudly.

Finally she leaves, and he goes back to his customer, apologizing for the wait. The clerk at the front desk meanwhile has been taking care of a woman with 15 large envelopes, all of which must be weighed and that she has to confirm the addresses by pushing a button on a little machine. The clerk has to remind her to do that on every single one because she’s busy writing addresses on the envelopes still to be weighed. 

By now I am only 2 people back. 

The passport guy now has two customers, the one he was trying to help from our line and someone who has come back with documents he had previously requested. He’s trying to help both. He won’t be pulling more people from our line. The guy in front of me slumps.

Eventually Ms. 15 unprepared envelopes is finished, gets her long receipt and is told to please fill out the survey at the bottom, and the clerk smiles brightly and declares “Next!” and the guy in front of me straightens up and goes to get his stamps.

And about then another post office employee comes out from the back, maybe back from lunch or a break. Or a nap. He moves so slowly I immediately think he’s the human form of a sloth. He literally is moving like molasses across the floor. Then he has to unlock his drawer. And sign into his computer. And slowly look up….at me….and say…..”N…e…x…t.”

I started to giggle. After all the craziness I’d been watching his deliberate movements seemed to make the whole room move in slow motion. I walked over with my one envelope, trying not to laugh. He slowly moved it to the scale, asked me if I needed anything else, had me click to confirm the address and printed up the postage, applying it to the envelope, all so very slowly and without looking directly at me.

Once I got my receipt I retreated to my car where I laughed hysterically. For a long time.

I’m including a link to the Zootopia trailer which has a quick scene of some sloths that work exactly like my postal worker.

Next…

May you find something this week that makes you laugh just as hard.


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There’s hope

Have I complained here about our local grocery store’s lack of customer service? I know I’ve complained about it plenty on Facebook.

When we first moved to this little rural town back in 1992 we had to drive over 6 miles to a grocery store. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but one of the routes took you over the same railroad tracks 3 times, and back then there were no crossing gates which made me nervous.

I used to think about whether I really needed whatever I was out of before I’d make the trip.

Then a few years after we moved here a big brand new grocery store was built only 2 miles away. And I didn’t have to cross the railroad! I was thrilled! The new employees seemed thrilled! 

Life was good.

But over the years the employees have become unhappy, complaining bitterly about their hours, their breaks, who’s working where, who got what shift, when they get to leave, who’s on break…it’s never ending. I really don’t want to hear it while I’m getting my groceries scanned and bagged. 

And since Covid there’s no employees to bag the groceries, so I end up doing that myself. I’m a really bad bagger.

And most of the time there’s no cashiers either, the store forcing everybody to go through the self scanners, even with full carts. They even installed a couple of the self scanners with long chutes down to the bags so you have room to do big orders. Of course that doesn’t work well because after you scan it all you still have to go down there to bag and by the time you do that the next person is sending their groceries down the chute. 

Routinely only one set of self scanners is open, they don’t have enough employees to man both sets. So that means there are a total of 3 self scanners, plus two with long shoots for big orders and most of the time no human cashier. 

It’s a big store, lots of people shop there. I have no idea why.

The lines are long to use the self checking stations, often half way down the aisles. If there’s a checkout person working the lines there are even longer. I’ve tried different times of the day, tried evening shopping, tried middle of the day, middle of the week. It doesn’t matter. There’s never adequate staffing at this store, and those that are there are the most unhappy people I’ve ever met.

The last time I stood in a line with more than 10 people ahead of me, just to self scan a few items, I decided enough was enough. When I got home I logged into their silly survey and told them I’d no longer be shopping there, and don’t bother calling me to explain the shortage of people.

Then I moved my business to the grocery store in town. Same company, worse parking lot, longer drive, more traffic, but the employees are nice! They’re friendly, they’re happy, and they always have at least two cashiers working, and all 12 self scan stations open too. I haven’t been in a line there yet.

And they always thank me for shopping there.

The store is set up differently and it takes me longer to do the shopping, but I’m slowly figuring out where stuff is. Today when I emerged from the aisles a cashier was waiting in front of her empty station. She caught my eye, asked me if I was ready, and when I nodded yes she said “Good! I’ve been waiting for you!” 

We chatted as she rang up my groceries. There still wasn’t a bagger available, so I did that while we talked and she scanned. She asked what I used dried cranberries for, and said the salmon looked good. 

We laughed about something.

I told her I was driving out of my way to come to her store because the people were so friendly and happy. In fact, I said, look at the back of the shirt on the cashier in the next lane! It said “Fresh, Fun, Friendly!” ”Oh she said, that’s our motto!”

Well, that’s the reason I drive all the way here, I told her. She stopped bagging my groceries and looked me in the eye. ”Did you used to shop at the Davisburg Kroger?” 

She nailed it. 

“Yep,” I said. She nodded and said “We get a lot of their customers here.”

Give that woman a raise. Customer service is not dead, and I have hope.

I will drive further, park in a small cramped lot, endure wicked traffic, and smile while bagging my own groceries if someone smiles at me while ringing up my order.

Lesson for Kroger: It doesn’t take a lot to increase your bottom line. All you have to do is keep your employees happy. Management matters.

No doubt about it.


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A tale of customer service

Some of you know that I spent most of my career in banking. The last 13 years of it were spent in mortgage banking, but the before that, for about 7 years I was management in retail banking. IE, a branch manager.

I managed different sized offices during that stint, some really small, some really big. All of them were busy, back in the days before electronic paychecks and even before ATM machines.

I remember lines out the door on General Motor’s weekly paydays. And cars constantly lined up in the drive-throughs on Friday evening when we stayed open late.

Working with the public can be stressful. I get that. But somewhere along the line customers got cut out of the service equation.

This week I realized my credit card was expiring at the end of May and I hadn’t received a replacement card. I’ve had this card since 1980. It says so right there on the plastic, and I’ve never had an issue like this.

So I figured I’d just call in and find out when I might expect the card. It wasn’t like I had any grand purchases planned, but it’s handy to have. I called the 800 number on the back of my card, the number for Customer Service.

After listening to several instructions to push 1 or say yes or no, I listened to a few advertisements for things they could do for me, none of which I was interested in. And interspersed between the ads, were suggestions about how much easier it could be if I’d just download the mobile app. Or perhaps I’d like to go to their website where surely I could solve all my problems.

All of this repeated for many long excruciating minutes, with ugly background noise disguised as music enhancing my enjoyment. They were experiencing a ‘high volume’ of calls and the wait time might be unusually long.

Huh. On a Tuesday night at 6:30 they were experiencing a high volume of calls? OK, I needed to go to band rehearsal, so after waiting for 15 minutes I decided to try again on another day.

Early Wednesday morning I called again. The same irritating music, the same ‘high volume of calls.’ I waited almost 20 minutes and hung up in disgust. It was obvious they were not interested in talking to me.

So I decided, what the heck, I’ll just drive to my local branch with my expired card and have them help me figure out what to do. Seemed so simple I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that from the start.

This afternoon I stopped by my branch.

There was nobody sitting at any of the customer service desks. The lights on that side of the building weren’t even on. There was a stock broker in a suit sitting in his office, but he wasn’t the appropriate person to fix my credit card issue.

Behind the teller line was one man, talking to a customer about a problem. It seemed quite complicated. At the far end of the teller line counter was another man running money through a counting machine. I couldn’t see it, but I’ve been around equipment like that enough to recognize the sound.

He never looked up.

I waited at the “enter here” sign for the employee to finish with the only other customer in the building. I waited a long time. And I noted he did not provide a solution to the customer’s problem.

Finally the man with the problem left and I approached the teller window. “You’ll need to go down there,” said the employee, nodding his head at the man on the end, still busy counting money. “I don’t have any money.” And he began to walk away.

“I don’t need money.” I said.

“Then what do you want?” he asked.

Yep, I’m feeling really weird about this whole place now. No customers, no staff, not even a teller working the drive-through, the curtains there are drawn, there’s no equipment on the counters, something seems off.

“Are you still a full service bank?” I asked.

“Why do you ask,” said the guy still counting money.

“Because there’s no one here.” I responded.

“We just had a bunch of people call in sick.” he replied.

Sure.

Anyway, I told the employee about my expired credit card and he said he couldn’t do anything from the branch and gave me a phone number to call.

An 800 number.

Apparently it’s my responsibility to fix this problem. And I’m not going to get any help from my local branch. If they’re even a branch at all.

I know I’m not alone, but when did customer service stop being a thing? And why must we only deal with people far away in call centers which must be so understaffed that exceptionally high call volume is really the norm and not an exception at all.

Maybe I’m just an old baby boomer who likes to reminisce about the way things used to be. But you youngsters should have been around when customer service ruled. When you got to talk to people face to face. And when they did their best to solve a problem rather than pass it on.

Or back to the customer.

Yep, those were the days. You’d have been amazed.

Note: images are from a walk last month at my favorite park. I never got them into a post, so I figure even if you don’t want to read about banking, and who would, you might enjoy the birds.