Je vous ask pardon

The woman drummed her foot as she waited for help. The young man continued his personal conversation on the phone. The woman cleared her throat. She glanced in her direction before turning her back on her.

“Can I have some help please?” she asked.

He whispered to the receiver, “Just a second,” before covering the receiver. “I’ll be with you in a bit.” She returned to her phone call.

The woman placed her package on the counter, turned and walked away, muttering, “I won’t be here.”

That business lost a customer because an employee put a personal conversation before doing their job. Every time someone takes care of staff business instead of his or her duties, he or she harms the employer by costing the business money, customers, and reputation.

The example given above cost the business a customer, which in turn takes money that pays employee wages, causing a loss of revenue for the business and employees. The wages paid to the young man during the time he was not working for the company, but was visiting, are wasted as the business receives nothing in return. Many of us have “horror” stories about poor service and refuse to return to that store or company.

Two employees chatted while one rank up a customer’s purchases. The customer tried to get the clerks’ attention, but the young woman at the register ignored the man and continued talking to her friend while she ran the barcodes through the scanner.

“Please ma’am,” the customer insisted, “you need to know about this slip. The chairs are charging…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call him.” The cashier didn’t even look at the man when she answered.

“But, you don’t understand, I’m supposed to tell you there were six chairs,” added the man.

The cashier, not much more than a girl, rolled her eyes at her friend as she waved a hand at the customer.

The man and his wife shook their heads as they walked away from the counter with the bags containing the rest of their purchases. On the way home, the wife examined the registration tape. “That girl only charged us for one chair. I thought the total seemed too low.”

“We’ll call the store when we get home,” her husband replied. They did call when they got home, but the manager, once he heard the story, told them that since it wasn’t the couple’s fault, not to worry about the price of the other chairs.

That store lost several hundred dollars, but didn’t lose customers because of the manager’s good manners. Still, the store wasted money on unearned wages and lost price of the chairs.

Lack of good etiquette costs companies money through lost wages and lost profits if mistakes are made because employees don’t do their jobs carefully. Also, poor customer relations cause customers to leave and not return. Those unsatisfied clients and customers also tell others about their experiences, possibly causing others to stay away from that company.

This spread of dissatisfaction damages a company’s reputation. As word spreads about poor customer service and lack of good manners from employees, people start avoiding the business. The result is a tarnished reputation for being fair and concerned about customers.

Eventually, the employees are laid off or the company goes out of business, causing the employees to become unemployed. Then those same people, whose lack of good business etiquette led to disaster, wonder why they no longer have a job.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top