Customer service, what do you expect?

Take minimum wage, add lack of respect, subtract dignity, tips and commission, and what do you get? You get a classic recipe for poor customer service. I interviewed a habitual slacker on why he administers poor service to his customers and what employers can do to prevent their employees from slipping into the same mindset.

We find ourselves in a North Coast California movie theater. The hours are long, there are mounds of spilled popcorn and puddles of sticky mystery goo strewn about the theater to be thanklessly cleaned at the end of each movie, there are screaming children in the lobby, a line out the door, and in between the chaos of show time rush there is agonizingly boring waits until the next showing spent with fellow employees who thrive on gossip and forming cliques.

It may be three in the afternoon, and the customer in front of you may not know it but you’ll be there until midnight. You know that when you get off work that you’ll be tired, and hungry. No restaurants beyond fast food are open, the store is closed, and most likely your significant other will be fast asleep and you can only hope they left you with some leftovers in the fridge.

This is the face of customer service in most establishments. In restaurants employees make an extra effort at courteousness for the chance of a better tip. Those that are paid on commission have the same motivation, but not our friend at the movie theater. He must clean the theaters, counters, vacuum the lobby, sweep the entry way, refill the butter dispenser, stock candy, do theater checks twice during each movie, sell tickets and refreshments, breakdown cardboard boxes, even remove that dead bird from the awning over the ticket box all without the customer even knowing the hoops he had to jump through to enhance their movie going experience.

Even after all that is done there is still one more matter he must deal with: the other employees. Some of them are trainees who can’t get the hang of anything, some of them are spreading viscous rumors about him, one of the other employees has a crush on him but becomes furious when she finds out he has girlfriend, another employee is a former marine who has just come back from Iraq and is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. This is his work team, his support system.

All of this creates a stressful work environment and wears on his morale and willingness to give 110%. If he works hard, it wears him down and he sees no extra gain. He does the bare minimum and gets paid just the same. Whatever he doesn’t do gets pawned off on his fellow employees who are flat out malicious towards him. He is only working there part time and will be leaving town soon anyways. So what would you do in his shoes? Even if you had a positive, upbeat demeanor, a work environment like this would eventually begin to wear you down and your concern for your customers would soon diminish as well.

What could have prevented this unsavory work environment? In this workers opinion the manager could have allowed more breaks, especially after rushes on opening days, allowed the employees to have more fun at work to promote healthy relationships among employees, especially since they all had to work together long hours several times a week. Instead of constantly finding unnecessary busy work for employees to do let them decide when they should take care of all the miscellaneous tasks they have to do in a day. This would have created a sense of control over the work environment which in turn would have allowed employees to take more pride in their work and enjoy the work day more.

So next time you go somewhere and you get less than stellar service, think about what that person has to go through that day. He or she will be there for several hours more and you are there on your own free will, enjoying your day. You may be purchasing items that cost more than they’ll get paid that entire day. So just remember how it feels to be in the shoes of the minimum wage worker and maybe you won’t be appalled because they didn’t treat you like you were a king among peasants.

-Kilmer