I was recently in a credit union where one of the tellers had just flown back from the west coast on a particular airline. She had gotten in late that night because of scheduling changes made by the carrier. That was upsetting enough to her. But what really fried her was the attitude of one of the gate attendants.
As she approached the attendant with her question about the flight changes, the attendant immediately indicated that she was annoyed by all these passengers. Rather than apologizing for the customer’s inconvenience, the attendant behaved like an arrogant jerk. Needless to say, the teller now back at the credit union was contacting Continental not about the flight delay but about “how she was treated” by the attendant.
You know we buy products and services and judge them by how well they perform. Everybody wants to walk into their credit union and know they are receiving a good value. And they want to be sure that their service provider is informed and accurate in hisor her work. But what else do they expect? What do you expect when you walk into a store or buy by phone or the internet?
We expect something that works and fits our style, our needs and value. But products don’t always work and occasionally the service is not up to the standards. And we remember that there are exceptions – we know we’re not perfect.
One of the kids on my baseball team whose dad is an engineer and who I’m sure will be an engineer always looks for the perfect pitch and the perfect call. It took a lot of coaching to convince him he’ll wait a long time for that pitch and even longer for that call.
We know life is not about the perfect pitch or the perfect call; it’s about dealing with what’s outside and low, up and in. Life is about dealing with life stuff and how we treat others in the process becomes a most critical issue.