Inaccurate thinking and loss of emotional control can cost you, your employees and especially customers.
Here is the story. At a nationwide upscale retail store the policy for discounts which was communicated to employees was simple. If a customer wanted to buy a floor model they received a 10% discount.
On a recent Sunday morning, a husband and wife enter the store and were greeted by a sale associate. Asked if they needed help they point to the display window and asked if the copper Kitchen Aid mixer which cost $800+ was in stock. After checking the sales rep reported there were none in stock but they had three options : 1. order the mixer on line and the shipping would be waived. 2. The sales associate would check with near by stores to see if one was available. 3. They could purchase the floor model for 10% discount. They choose option three. Before the sales associate went for a box the wife pointed out what she believed was a scratch. The sales associate agreed and said that’s why floor models were discounted. So far so good the sale was on track. (Oh, by the way the store has not sold one of these copper Kitchen Aid mixers in four years.) Then enter the male “alpha” store manager who had found a box and over heard the comment about a scratch which he told the sales associate in the back room was not true. The customer who was waiting outside the door over heard the manager’s comments and yell into the back that yes it was scratched and he would show him the scratch. The manager stormed out of the room to confront the customer and an alpha male battle over who was right proceeded. The customer took offense and disagreed with the manager and ended up saying–never mind I will order it online and turned on his heels to leave the store. The employee was embarrassed and apoligized . The cutomer said not to worry because it wasn’t her fault. Did the manger try to recovery wth the customer? No. He said to the confused and embarrassed sales associate that this incident was not her fault.
What was the impact of this loss of emotional control? The customer left unhappy and according to research will tell at least twenty other people of their poor treatment at the store. The sales associate was confused about the policy of floor discounts and embarrassed about the lack of support and empowerment. And the sale was not made. What lessons can other leaders or managers take away from this story?
1. Take the time to see the interaction from the salesperson’s or the customer’s point of view. 2. Don’t try to win at any cost. 3. Making the customer wrong creates a lose-lose situation for all involved.
Will this bad event happen again? Yes, if the manager does not recognize a simple fact of customer serice –The customer is always right and you never win an argument or get a sale by fighting with people who have choices. For this reason many consultants and therapists–beginning with Freud–have clients create a ‘mimesis’ — meaning they role-play the situation from the offending party’s perspective. The hope is that, through this training and role-playing, managers and employees might better understand why someone might want to emotionally take a bite out of them when they are attacked for being wrong, if they listen and learn the lesson in maybe can avoid being bitten again!
Your Assignment: If you’ve been caught between an irrational manager or customer by being yelled at– or experienced any other kind of impulsive emotionally bulling— take the time today to try to see things from a ‘Customer’s Point of View’ so you can perhaps avoid being stupid, rejected or yelled at again. Plus this exercise will help you lessen the built up anger in your life. Good Luck.
