Glaring stare

Have you ever rented a hotel room, a function room, a school gym or an auditorium and you go beyond the time because of delays? While you are willing to pay for the extra charges here comes the administrator, manager or chief who begins to complain.

They are even good at making you uncomfortable wanting to drive you away from the place.

First, he or she turns off the aircon, then the lights. Muttering and mumbling and perhaps cussing, cursing and hating the moment because he or she could not leave the place and the delay was costing the person?

I had this experience last year. I was involved in a video shoot and the competent crew wanted to make sure everything was perfect. The creative agency on top of the project was willing to pay for a few extra minutes to complete the project with all the camera and tech setup already in place.

I felt uncomfortable… I could sense that we were there too long. This is amazing isn’t it? The gut feel always tell you that there seems to be something wrong and somebody seems to be very uncomfortable sending out those negative feelings.

I apologized to the rest of the people there. It was not my fault, yet I took it upon myself to apologize to everyone in the room for the delay.

There was this lady who stood in front of me. She glared at me and threw dagger looks at me. If looks can kill, then I would have died right that moment. She never opened her mouth, but her stare communicated a million words. I did not know she was the manager of the place.

Finally, the director called it “a wrap.” And that’s when my daughter, who is now running my business, said, “Dad, it’s funny isn’t it? This is a university that is known to offer premium business courses in the land, yet this lady surely does not reflect basic human courtesy and does not practice what their school has been teaching in terms of customer service.

Yes, we over-extended our time, something we did not plan; it was a long day for me. The professional production people were doing their job well. Everyone was tired, and if given a choice, everyone would have wanted to go home early, but they stayed, finished the job, and here is the most defining difference, they stayed upbeat, they apologized graciously and they were still smiling, while this sullen, cross, discourteous lady displayed a smile that would have made Dracula or Frankenstein blush. Her portrayal of sympathies of a serial killer was so successful in making all of us miserable, but it did not work. We stayed upbeat and positive while she sulked in her misery.

Rachel, my daughter said: “Dad, I’ll never work in a beautiful place like this with a person of such an ugly disposition like hers.”

The entire delay did not take more than an hour. Imagine that? Less than an hour, yet that person’s undesirable face, the dagger looks, and the glaring stare is now permanently fixed in the minds of those who were there. That lady should have worked in a funeral parlor, or at least, attended my seminars. But I guess she will always be this way unless… she is trained.

This is why customer service does not happen automatically. Front liners and managers should be trained to understand why they need to be positive, courteous, polite and must communicate in a more professional way.

Excellent customer service, in my book, has been defined as “Inconveniencing one’s self for the convenience of others…” And this lady apparently has learned to “inconvenience others because she was inconvenienced…” Oh how I would love to have her in my seminar. I would even sponsor her if the school authority would permit.

(Ken Blachard and John Maxwell’s accredited industry practitioners and subject matter experts joins Francis Kong in an afternoon conference entitled: Leadership excellence -The winning edge! On March 2 at City Club at Alphaland Makati. For registration and inquiries contact Jacque or Mary at 0917-817-3736 or call Inspire-UN Leadership Consultancy Inc. at 777-6038).