Killing them with kindness

Last year in April, I had a shift that started out so very odd. I wrote about it, but I left it sitting in my iPhone notes collecting dust. I’d like to share it now.

~^..^~

First thing of my shift, my co-lead and I clock in, check out store devices, and dun, dun, dun.... get called into the principal’s office. Lol

Not really, but ya know that work feeling when the boss says, come in and sit down, when you didn’t start the conversation? Yeah that.

Very quickly it turned into a ‘you guys are leaders in the store and we want to share some insights into a new customer service perspective so you can help lead our team better’.

Oh. One of THOSE talks. And videos. I kid you not, the first one was a tear jerker and I started wiping at my eyes. Without a word, just a simple small smile, he reaches over for a tissue box and sets it in front of me. 

And while the whole purpose of the talk, which he said would last 10-15 minutes actually took 40, was about ways of connecting with our customers in different ways, which in turn drives repeated business up, it really got to the heart of what I’ve been thinking about lately.

The videos were Chick-fil-a training videos, but they were an awesome new perspective to look at. It’s common sense stuff, but not what we always think about. As I said, it hit home with a lot of what I’ve been mulling recently, and the first video starts with the crux of the issue. “Every person has a story.”

As retailers we have a limited amount of time to spend with our customers. 10-15 minutes, usually some less and sometimes much more. That’s all the time we have to make a truly human connection. We don’t know their names usually, or what’s going on in their lives. Sometimes we get customers who share their whole life story and it can get annoying, but think about why for just a moment. Why would someone share so many intimate details with a perfect stranger? 

We don’t know what anybody’s life is like. What if they’re lonely and you are one of the few people that they have interactions with this week? What if they had a childhood trauma of a family nature that left them searching for love and acceptance and you cringe away from them in disgust for hygiene, wardrobe, style?

What if you have five minutes to brighten their day just a little bit? Would you take the opportunity?

Think about the legacy you want to leave behind. Perhaps someone you touch will never know or remember your name. Perhaps they’ll forget all about you. But for one moment in time you can make a difference.

At Gordmans, we didn’t call it ‘customer service’ and we didn’t call them customers. Turns out we weren’t the only company, but I had never encountered it before. I asked why and had a really awesome manager, Kevin, explain it in a really awesome way that struck me enough to stay with me all these years.

If you think about it, your work life can take as much time and energy as your home life and it’s tough to find a balance sometimes. But if it takes any amount of time, your work place is like a second home. You take pride in your home, why not your work? So a customer is coming into your second home and asking questions or requesting something that you as the host would normally provide if able. Do all of these second home guests behave, or deserve your effort? Certainly not. But ‘killing them with kindness’ isn’t just a cool Biblical saying. It works.