What Are You Communicating to Your Customers?

Years ago, when phones sat on little tables in the hallway and were attached to the wall with long, black cords, phone lines were shared by several households. “Party lines” were not always instantly available, like today’s cell phones. If you wanted to find out what was going on in the house next door, you could pick up the phone and listen in on another conversation without detection. No blinking lights, no digital readouts to give you away. The downside was finding out more than you wanted to know. Listening in on another person’s conversation, while entertaining at times, could be uncomfortable.

Now that almost everyone has a cell phone, it’s almost impossible not to hear tidbits of the lives of perfect strangers. While it’s easy to tune these conversations out, some are not. Some conversations are appropriate between co-workers while working, when they have to do with the business or customer, but others tend to give more information than necessary and can make the customer feel uncomfortable.

I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, and since I shop there a lot, was ready for the standard greeting when the clerk began to ring up my order. I’m sure it’s part of their customer service training, but this time the tone of her voice was a little distracted. Standing at the end of the checkout line was a young man identified by his name tag as a supervisor. Seems I had intruded upon a conversation they had been having about when it was time for the clerk to complete her shift. After the scripted pleasantries, she went right back to her previous argument with the supervisor.

(clerk) “I’m going to leave at 1:30.”
(supervisor) “No, Angela is coming in at 2:00 and you need to stay until she gets here.”
(clerk) “I told you that I was leaving, and it’s on the schedule”
(supervisor) “No, you need to wait until Angela gets here.”

It continued through the bagging, stacking in the cart and my departure. What should have been an opportunity to engage the customer turned into an awkward 10 minutes when I wished they were on the other end of a party line and I could simply hang up. Instead, there was no escape.

Customers don’t want to know of or be subjected to arguments, disagreements, or disputes between co-workers. While they were not communicating to me, they were communicating nevertheless. Instead of a pleasant shopping experience, I left with the impression that the manager needed some employee management and dispute resolution training.


Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and workplace consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," "Pulse" and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.