Raise the Barn

Yeah – already too geeky with that title but I couldn’t resist comparing workers at a concession stand at Newark International with geek as my first rant.

I’m sitting there waiting for my 6 a.m. flight home (after having my flight the night before canceled) when I decide to grab a coffee at a stand I’ve ordered coffees at before. Now I’ve typically received an “I don’t like dealing with the public” attitude from these counter workers…I know!

Anyway, this morning was very different. I thought I was already back in the South with this woman calling me “sweetie” and the barista repeating my order before I had even finished giving it to them. Music in the background, jovial and light atmosphere. It was efficient, clear, personable, precise…a well-oiled machine in action. Yeah. Something was askew.

I go to pick up my drink and a guy with a clipboard walks up and asks me how my service was right in front of the workers behind the counter. I know!

Well, it all made sense then. Staggers if they think they can get anything useful from asking me in front of them after they’ve just acted completely different knowing I was getting a man with questions at the end of my order. Let’s see – act like a jerk or be sweet and professional before he grades me…hmmm…

So I asked myself, “do I answer how I was treated today or how I get treated on average?” Choose today and these goofballs get no feedback. Choose how I normally get treated and they treat my answers as outside the norm so no need to act on them.

I gave them all high marks and figured I’d leave it to them and Hawthorne to come to the conclusion that doing customer satisfaction surveys improves customer satisfaction…staggers.