Earlier on, a friend described a situation she had been able to observe at a local gas station. While paying she heard how one person asked the other: “do you know which idiots are coming to work with us tomorrow?”.
That my friend was a slightly shocked to hear her talk like that was visible, but the person wasn’t able to understand why. The only explanation my friend had, was that she was not aware of the words she had used and how unfriendly her language was towards her colleagues. Beyond this, she didn’t seem to notice how her behavior could be perceived by the customers present at that moment.
Upon hearing this report, my first reaction was a guess about where she had seen this scene. The way my friend had described the atmosphere reminded me of a very specific place here about and yes I had made the correct connection. I had witnessed how employees had been screaming at each other in that very place the day before.
These two events guided me in my reflection. These scenes had been remarkable enough to trigger a thinking process and see more of what I had seen in that place previously and how I had reacted to it.
It’s a place I don’t really like, if I can I’ll happily make a small detour and go to another gas station. The reason is simple, I enjoy having a little moment to connect or chat with the cashier. Nothing big, it’s about a smile, a little joke or something else that makes clear, that we have seen one another. And that distinguishes both gas station. In one of them, connection is welcome, in the other one it is often rejected.
The atmosphere in the shop impacts the customer service just as well as how they feel as individuals in the team. In one of them, they seem to be so focused on themselves that they can’t connect.
It all had been in plain sight. But it took the described scenes to make me realize where my preference came from. Or to notice how I had felt a bit frustrated every time I had paid in that gas station.
It is a detail. The impact establishes itself with a constant drip drip drip.
