KEN'S KORNER - MARCH 2006

SERVICE WITH A SNARL
By Author, Educator and Big City Driver Ken Skaggs

Don’t you just hate it when you get bad service? Let’s face it, if you’re going to spend your hard earned money, you want something in return, don’t you? And when it isn’t what you expected, well, it’s just not fair.

How many times has mediocre service happened to you? How many times has a clerk been rude to you? Has a mechanic ever laughed right at you as he explained how expensive he was and how stranded you were? Has a receptionist at a dentist’s office ever huffed at the notion of squeezing you in? Have you ever asked for the manager, only to find the same attitude in a tie? Me too.

Take for example the case of the mysterious disappearing waitress. This one has undoubtedly happened to all of us. Right about the time that your cup hits bottom, she’s nowhere in sight. Your reason for sitting down with some coffee in the first place was so that you could relax and think about the day’s events, plan, and unwind. But now your only thought is a growing need for caffeine, and the whereabouts of the person who isn’t doing their job.

Early one Saturday morning, three friends and I stopped in for some coffee as we planned our day of fishing. It was four o’clock in the morning and we wanted to be juiced-up and on the water by five. Three of us were serious coffee drinkers who could polish off several cups first thing in the morning, especially when getting up a little early like that and planning for a cool morning outdoors. When we saw the small coffee cups, one friend asked if she could leave the pot. She laughed as though it was a joke, but he was serious. So, off she went, laughing, never to be seen again. Since she was the only employee in the place and we were the only customers, we wound up helping ourselves to the full pot behind the counter, several times, before leaving. We tossed a few dollars on the table (just enough to cover the cost of the coffee) and left without ever even getting a bill.

I’m sure everyone reading this can tell me a few stories too. We all know that most people are kind and do their job well for the most part, but there is always someone, every once in a while, who is having a bad day and trying to make certain that you do too. What can we do about it? And how can we make sure that we don’t do it in our line of work? The first thing I would suggest is to make sure it doesn’t ruin your day. Refuse to let bad service or rude people bother you. Someone else more deserving of your money is probably right down the road, so just go elsewhere next time.

This plan of avoidance works well in the case of retail operations, but not so for shippers and receivers. When you have a load to deliver, and the receiver is a pain in the you-know-what, you can’t just deliver it to someone else. You’re stuck. Like it or not, this is the guy that you have to deal with. In this case, all you can really do is grin and bear it. It may not be fair, but sometimes life isn’t. Try to recall a time when everything went in your favor, once, and smile about that.

Driving a truck is a service, much like being a waitress. You have to wait on people, get their orders, deliver the product, get the bill, etc. The only difference is that they deliver on a tray and we deliver on a truck. That, and the fact that we don’t get tips (maybe you get tips if you are a household mover or something, but I sure don’t). But trucking is a service and we (drivers) are expected to be prompt and courteous as we perform our job. So, the next time you get a waitress that doesn’t smile, ask yourself if you smiled at your last customer at your last stop. If you did, then go ahead and complain about her, but if you didn’t smile at your customer, why would you expect someone to smile at you?
Reward good service when you get some. Of course, that means tip well when appropriate. But at times when tipping isn’t appropriate, a compliment can really make someone’s day. I think we all inspire each other with words. A kind word, even from a stranger, can make a real difference.

Likewise, negative words can affect someone’s attitude too - in a bad way.

My wife and I used to frequent a certain restaurant. There was this one waitress who had the highest voice you ever heard. She literally squeaked out words. We used to call her squeaky, though not to her face. But we never minded her being our waitress because she was a fine one. Many times, we would hear people tease her about her voice. One day I said to her, “You know, you have a great voice for radio.” And I was serious, she really did. I suggested to her that any radio show would hire her and that she would make a great sidekick with her very unique voice. From that day on, every time we saw her, she just beamed with happiness to serve us. She used to ask me how she could go about getting into radio, and has thanked me more than once for my kind words. Soon after that, she quit working there and we never saw her again. But I wouldn’t be surprised if one day we hear her on the air.

I never thought that my words could inspire someone like that. Someone I hardly know was inspired by a few kind words from the heart. So, the next time you do business with someone that seems to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, just say something nice and see if you can turn them around.

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