Customer Service Lessons in the Checkout Line

Like most of us, I spent a lot more time than usual in the checkout lines this past month. I'm a generally patient person by nature, and I spent almost ten years working retail, so I'm fairly sympathetic towards the poor person working the cash register.

Some shoppers are very tactical in planning their trips to the checkout line. They have a playbook to rival Bill Belichick and have their families trained to scout the shortest lines, then divide and conquer. I'm admittedly your basic lemming when it comes to checkout lines, but I still expect a few common service practices from the retail customer service representatives.

While at Wal-Mart one early morning a few weeks ago I stood in the only open checkout lane. The person at the cash register was embroiled in a strange exchange situation that had escalated into a confused mess on the order of nuclear proliferation. I and a couple of people behind me sat in witness like poor citizens doomed to grand jury duty. Just a few feet away stood a handful of Wal-Mart employees. They were chatting. They were laughing. They were standing around shooting the breeze. They paid no attention to their struggling teammate and they refused to acknowledge the growing line of disgruntled customers. When I finally checked out and left about ten minutes later they were still standing there.

A few days later I found myself at Panera standing in what appeared to be the only open check-out line. I was behind two ladies who had all sorts of time to figure out what they wanted and insisted on turning their ordering experience into a real-life episode of Deal or No Deal. Behind the counter stood two other check-out people in their Santa hats. They stood leaning against the counter chatting with each other.

Pretty soon a manager-looking person walked out of the kitchen and joined the obviously social conversation. More customers began to queue behind me, but it made no difference. They were as oblivious to us as a teenager is to dirty clothes on the floor of their bedroom.

Call centers are all about getting customers out of queue and getting the issue resolved. Each moment the customer sits on hold is money out of the company's pocket. Retail doesn't seem to have that sense of urgency, and I don't forsee any tangible means of charging them for my time in line.

Nevertheless, I can choose to patronize businesses who train their front-line employees to:

1. Observe. Learn to be aware of the big picture. Look outside of your own checkout line. What are customers experiencing around you? Where do we need reinforcements?
2. Acknowledge. You can see the impatience in the customers. You know that this growing mess of an exchange situation is going to delay things for everyone. Acknowledge this to the customers in line with a, "I'm very sorry for the delay. We'll get this resolved as quickly as possible." Better yet, "I'm very sorry for the delay, let me get one of my teammates to open another register."

A little acknowledgment. A little empathy. A little communication with the customer. Three little things that are already on my wish list for 2008.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Zeetz Jones.

Comments

[Rush Nigut]

I hope you know a really good genie because I doubt your wishes will be granted. Unfortunately your recent experiences seem to be an everyday occurrence in the world of retail. Do retail stores actually train their employees any longer?

[Art Dinkin]

I'm not sure I can buy your premise that call centers have a sense of urgency. Granted, retail service can be poor but poor service is not a given in retail. I can not remember a single call center experience where I was left feeling good about the experience. In my opinion, poor results are the norm for call centers.

I am not going to lament a long list of call center complaints here. I'll just list one.

"Your call is important to us" - Every time I hear that recorded message it always leaves me feeling unimportant. If I was actually important to a company, then I would get a live person to answer the phone. Not a minutes long button pushing session only to get a person who asks me a bunch of questions before listening to the reason I initiated the call!

I've read your blog for a long time Tom and have a great deal of respect for you personally, but not for any call center.

And thanks for listening. Now push 1 if you agree...

[Tom Vander Well]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

Art, you raise a good point. I should not generalize and say that all call centers have that sense of urgency - though I have to hold you to the same standard and believe that not ALL service experiences from call centers are poor ones - though they may be the norm.

The problem you describe usually stems from companies seeing the call center as a money sucking expenditure - a hopeless, giant revenue drain. They therefore try to trim staff as thin as possible while still answering the phone. It results in most call centers being understaffed for the amount of call volume and customers having to wait in queue (which is also a revenue drain).

One call center I know about recently scrapped their entire front-end menu and routed calls immediately to a live agent. The money they saved from not having customers getting lost in the front-end menu made up for the additional time having CSRs personally define the request and route the call to the appropriate team, AND the customer was getting immediate, personal service.

Unfortunately, that's NOT the norm - but it will hopefully catch on!

[AmySandvold]

I get what you are saying. Starbucks has amazing costumer service everytime I visit the drive-up window. I've heard jokes, good mornings, thank yous and the service is still fast and the product is great. I compared it directly to another well-known fast-food drive-through that fails miserably every time. Simple things really do make a difference. I am curious what the training program is like for Starbucks vs. others. It is so evident it has to be purposeful. It starts with the mindset of the company and company leadership. Simple shifts in language make all of the difference without taking any more time! I just blogged about this in education. Simple shifts in how we approach things and what we say make a huge impact on people. I am totally with you on this one. -Amy S.