Even If the Customer Isn't Always Right, I'm Still Paying Your Salary

Quality customer service is something of value, and clearly something that not all enterprises quite comprehend or execute successfully. A clear example of the "yes's" and "no's" of customer service can be demonstrated through a side-by-side comparison of our local Safeway and Trader Joe's.

Rude Safeway checkout girl never flashes a smile in the dozens of times we've been there. She loudly commands us (note: not asks us) in a monotone voice to hand her the bags we brought with us--here we thought we were such do-gooders, but it turns out we're the consumer equivalent of scum of the earth. Safeway girl orders us to inch our cart even more forward (even though up until a millisecond ago we were still unloading items from it onto the conveyor belt), and then proceeds to noisily bang the cart in useless vengeance as she aligns it with herself and the register. Such lovely auditory accompaniment to our shopping experience. Safeway chick avoids eye contact, is tight-lipped, and a constant reminder that our patronage and presence is the bane of her existence. At least, that's how her actions make us feel. Thus, another person in need of customer service training.

Now I'm not getting paid to say any of this, but our interactions at Trader Joe's today were a breath of fresh air from the unpleasant Safeway routine we had resigned ourselves to executing. At least two workers asked us if we needed help finding anything, probably because we were walking around so aimlessly and wide-eyed like a couple of small towners in the big city. The employee we finally asked to direct us to the rice and beans section was quite affable. The most redeeming part of our whole experience was exactly what we dreaded at Safeway every week: checkout time. A middle-aged man with a bright smile urged us into his aisle--imagine that, invited us to burden him with our soon-to-be purchases, all the while smiling and cracking jokes with the customer ahead of us. Once he got to us, he started commenting on my husband's Boca Juniors jersey, discussing the popularity of "football" in his home country of Haiti, and after overhearing us say something in Spanish, proceeded to converse with us in Spanish (in a very good accent I might add) and share with us that his current dream is to finish taking his Spanish and education courses at the University of Maryland and pursue a career teaching Spanish classes. Talk about a 180 degree turnaround!

I can think of multiple reasons why we've had such disparate experiences at these two grocery stores. Perhaps Safeway girl has a rough life. I think lots of people experiencing some level of job dissatisfaction are not chipper and eager to please. Maybe the wage difference between Safeway and Trader Joe's is enough to be noticed. It could be that there are different training programs implemented, if there's any customer service training at all, and management styles could be completely different. Our Trader Joe's guy might just have a naturally contagious zest for life. The bottom line is, Trader Joe's gained two loyal customers that Safeway basically gave away thanks to a combination of products and customer service. And that's the way the cookie crumbles.