I took my mother-in-law food shopping today at one of her favorite stores. We were chatting as we walked up to the checkout lane. As I unloaded my cart, the cashier, a young man pointed at my mother-in-law and said, “You’ll have to move to another checkout line.”
Apparently we walked up to the “fifteen items or less” line. I had less than fifteen.
My mother-in-law had twenty-three items.
“She’s legally blind,” I explained. “Neither of us saw the sign. I’m here to help her.”
He shook his head. “There’s people waiting behind you. She will have to move to another checkout line.”
I stood there with an incredulous look on my face.
“My items are already on the belt, and you want her to get in another long line, she only has a few items over the limit–I’m here to help her.”
He insisted she had to move.
So my mother-in-law moved her cart over to the next lane, which was now twice as long.
I was furious.
This is where common sense went completely down the toilet. This young man was so bent on following policy to the letter (fifteen items or less) that he threw customer service right out the window. It took longer for us to move out of the line than it would have for him to run eight more items through the register.
Before we left, we called over the manager to explain the situation. He recognized my mother-in-law immediately as he had helped her several times before to locate items on the shelves. Of course, he was appalled at the young man’s disregard for customer service and agreed to provide better training.
My brother-in-law encountered a similar situation of lack of common sense at a different food store. He went in to purchase a few items and at the counter, he noticed some candy bars filled with Bailey’s Irish Cream. He tossed them on the belt.
“I need to see your driver’s license,” the cashier said.
Now, my brother-in-law is no young guy–he’s 62 years old with a head peppered with gray hair.
“My license is in my car and it’s raining out. You can clearly see that I’m over twenty one.”
The cashier held firm. He had already rang up the candy bars and he wanted a license. The guy behind offered to buy the candy and show his license.
“It’s illegal for you to buy alcohol for someone else,” was the response.
You gotta be kidding me. Another situation in which common sense goes out the window. What’s going on these days? Have we become so ingrained with policies that we forget the bottom line of serving the customer?
I totally get the idea that we need policies and procedures to follow–but companies like Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines (of which I am a social ambassador), and Zappos allow their employees to use their creativity and common sense when it comes to serving their customers. The bottom line for these companies is customer satisfaction. The two food stores I mentioned above are sorely in need of changing the way they serve their customers, especially in situations where common sense is required to make a shopping experience a pleasant one.
Let’s bring back common sense.