As of lately I have had this subject on my mind and I can’t seem to shake it. Part of that reason is because I was talking about it one night while working overnight. Being able to talk to somebody has shed some light to my subject and has helped me see things in a slightly different manner. It is nice.
Over the years of working in customer service I have grown to develop a basic standard of how I expect to be treated when I go to almost any business. The biggest one of course would be any food related service. Walking into a restaurant is the biggest issue for me because I tend to make the biggest judgement call about how the food and service may just very well turn out. Yes, I can be judgmental at times just like everybody else but it is the situation that I judge and not people.
A perfect example of this was a few months back I went to Yosemite with two friends and we set to eat at the Ahwahnee Hotel like we tend to when we go to Yosemite. It was a pretty busy day and the server seemed to be pretty preoccupied with all the tables that she had. The part that really got me the most was the she went about certain things like refilling my drink as well as my friend’s drink that had been there far longer than mine.
In a way it felt like I expected too much of her to notice something so simple as an empty glass on the table but was it really? Service is secondary but where do we really start drawing the line? The only thing I really expected, I guess, was for her to communicate with us about how busy they were and that she would try to do her best in the situation.
Then I start to think about the times that I visit other Starbucks and get what I feel are not so good examples of what a barista should be like. I understand saying thank you to the customer as a means of thanking them for the business but I also have that mentality of saying you’re welcome after hearing it. In a way I guess I want people to almost act like I do to others but in their own way. I greet people like friends and friends like family. A lot of it I think is only because of my curiosity of how the human brain works and how we interact with one another.
Am I really expecting too much? Should I lower my standards so that I can be satisfied with how people act? I guess only time will really tell.