JephMaystruck.com

I hate lineups.  For anything really. I’m impatient and I usually want things as fast as they can humanly be delivered to my hands.  I’m pretty sure no one likes lineups so it is a perplexing issue to me that as humans (lineup haters) we don’t do everything in our power to minimize, shrink, or do what every we can to demolish these horrible things that eat up our time.

I don’t believe it is the general public’s or customers fault that there are lineups, it all has to do with the choice of architecture of the lineup.  These companies and organizations that under estimated their own traffic and how long wait times would be now must look to alternate methods of satisfying the demand at a minimal cost.

There is some research being conducted around lineups and how to minimize wait times but this research is mostly for grocery stores and Wal-Mart.  I think the research paid off, the “Express Line” at Safeway, the “12 items or less line” at Superstore and the newly adopted number system at Wal-Mart where they herd everyone into a line and a lovely women over the loud speaker tells you which till to go to once you reach the front of the herd.  All in an attempt to save their customer’s time.

It is very easy to find the organizations that don’t believe in “line reduction research”.  Craven Country Jamboree, Tim Horton’s, and my bank TD Canada Trust.

If I was to conduct my own research within these organizations here is what I would try.

Craven: Offer an express lane for vehicles only, no trailers.  As well, have line marshals that insure the line is constantly moving.  If it begins to bottleneck somewhere the line marshals must keep the vehicles moving.  Seems like a not bad solution to a problem that 25,000 people complain about every year.

Tim Horton’s: Offer an express lane to people who just want coffee.  Tim Horton’s could charge a quarter more in the “caffeine line”, I’d pay more for my coffee if I could have it right now.  Have a thermos?  How about an automatic coffee dispensary for all those who don’t mind serving themselves.

TD Canada Trust:  Again, offer an express lane to people who have no questions, that know exactly what they need to do and won’t take any longer than a minute.  The line gets bottlenecked when those REALLY friendly people come in and need to strike up a conversation about anything but their bank account.  TD knows that they can not compromise customer service so just have two lines, one for questions/conversations and one for banking.

Treating your customers better is a proven strategy to increase customer loyalty.  Caring about your customers time is obviously an undiscovered facet of customer service.  As our world keeps progressing and we get more busy, our time increases in value.  Finding an innovative way to tell your customers you care about their time could have a lasting effect on how they perceive your brand.

What do you think?

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The other day I found myself in a very interesting conversation about strangers.

Her: “I always try to be as nice as possible to strangers”

Me: “Really?  Why?”

Her: “Well, you never know who that person is and what if they’re the most important person in the World?”

Me: “So you assume everyone you meet/talk to is the most important person in the World?”

Her: “Precisely”

Me: I didn’t say anything just had a small explosion go off in my head.

My boss has always told me when going to a small town bar, make sure you treat the waitress like gold because she probably owns the place.  I think this is a great metaphorical life lesson.

The person who I know who is the best at dealing with people does this all the time.  You can see it when he talks to anyone, yes I mean anyone, he gives them the time of day, he truly cares about what they think and he makes them feel like they are the most important person in the world.  It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, this strategy works wonders for building your personal and professional relationships.

Where can you start?  Remember peoples names more often.  To anyone the most important word in the english language is his/her own name, if someone remembers it, it’s a sign of respect.  Here’s a few tips on how to remember better.

If you have a story about treating a stranger really well that resulted in something amazingly spectacular I’d love to here about it in the comments below!

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What gets you up in the morning?  What makes you go to a job day after day hating it, is it a means to an end?  What is that end?  What do you do on the REALLY bad days?  You know, the ones where you feel like quitting, like the world is against you, like you just want to get out.

Something must inspire you to keep going.

For me its coaching. I love volleyball and I love teaching kids about the game.  Last year my Senior Boys team from Winston Knoll won the city championship, the gold medal that was presented to me that day hangs around my rearview mirror in my car as a constant reminder when things get tough.

I’ve had some pretty bad days, days where I’m not sure what to do, days when I look into my future and for some reason it is a dark and negative picture (though nothing compared to Gabrielle).  That all goes away when I get in my car and see that medal.  It’s a constant reminder that I’m here in this world for a different reason than just having a job and getting by.  It tells me that there is more to life than money, work and what society calls success.

My success is the smiling faces on those kids every season.

What inspires you?

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When I was 18 my brother bought me my first beer kit at Harvest Brewing, we transformed a part of the basement into a brewery, beginning a life long hobby.  A couple years later I switched to wine and never looked back. Over the course of roughly 5 years I have made well over 100 kits (3000 bottles) of wine.

I have always patronized Harvest Brewing, one of the managers there would always go out of his way to ensure I was taken care of.   For the store his attitude paid off, I was loyal, never buying from anywhere else and telling everyone interested that Harvest Brewing was the place to go.  It wasn’t just the staff, I think Harvest Brewing’s wine kits are better, a couple months back I made a kit from a different store (it was for a lovely gal I make wine for, not myself) and the instructions alone were enough to make me quit drinking altogether.

So they have a great product, the employees go out of their way to help customers, what could possible be wrong at Harvest Brewing?

I went there last week to pick up a kit and chat about attracting new clientele and possibly helping begin a “You Brew” program in the store or in homes.  The response I received was don’t even try, it isn’t worth your time.  The owner is unreachable.

The store that has kept me there so long told me that the owner doesn’t care, he doesn’t have the time of day to listen.  If you don’t care about your company at least fake it to your employees so they don’t pass that on to your customers.

Immediately I felt shameful for being a long time customer of a store who’s owner doesn’t care about his employees or store and is just trying to make a quick buck.  Yes I’m over reacting and I know there MUST be more to the story but I’m not sure what I should do.

Would you pursue the owner and let him know the message his employees are conveying?  Change stores immediately?  Not do anything and keep helping a store who’s owner doesn’t care?  Please help.

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