Would you like a smile with that?

This gets me fired up. I miss the old days when a store clerk looked you in the eye and said “thank you” with a smile. And you know they meant it, because they were happy to have your business. Are there still clerks who do that? Sure. But it’s definitely harder to find.

Today I was at a large coffee chain ordering my big mocha, and because they are SOOO huge and SOOO successful, you’d expect that personal service would have gone out the window long ago. That’s not the case. With a smile the whole team said “hello…how are you?“ The smiles on their faces made me happy to do business with them. I ordered my coffee and when it was ready I got a nice “thank you, have a great day.“ Again, it seemed completely genuine and I smiled back and really meant it when I said “Thank you. You have a great day, too.“ There is a HUGE value in that. I left feeling good about my coffee and my experience. And yup, I’ll go back.

So why is it that some stores don’t value quality customer service anymore? It really is hard to find, and when I do find it I let a manger, clerk, or the corporate office know. I’ve responded to many a survey and written many letters to say “good job.“ When it comes to poor service, I just don’t go back…that is, if I have a choice. I guess we always have a choice, but sometimes convenience wins out.

Where am I going with this? Not sure. I just know what I like when I see it. I’m out and about a lot. I’m a working mom, and I buy 99 percent of what our family consumes. I look for sales and great deals. Value is important to me, but I just have to say that a smile goes a long way toward getting my business.

What do you think? I can’t be alone in this. How do you feel when you get great customer service versus the grumpy kid chomping on their gum?

Have a great day!
Ellie

As you know, I use lots of coupons. Some stores are more coupon-friendly than others, and likewise, some cashiers are more coupon-friendly than others. I love it when the cashier cheers me on or tells me I did a great job saving money. What I don’t like is when the cashier looks at me like I’m a thief for planning my purchases carefully, or when they inspect my coupons for minutes on end, trying to find a reason not to accept them.

I am right there with you Ellie…  I agree that everyone deserves GREAT customer service.  I worked for a large corporate america company before I decided to stay home with my son and I took pride in making sure that I was kind with my customers on a day in and day out basis.  I was ALWAYS told by my parents to treat others the way that you would want to be treated in return and I follow that to a T every single day.  There is one particular store that I use to get my prescriptions from (I will keep the name a secret) but will tell you it is a large chain and well known throughout the USA.  Our pharmacist left and went to another location and they decided to hire another pharmacist that didn’t know beans from apple butter.  The pharmacist was slow, rude and didn’t care one bit about their customers or questions that we might have.  They basically gave us our meds and tried their best to rush us off without answering any questions.  I was REALLY turned off by this and decided to call corporate headquarters and complain.  They apologized and said that someone would call me to talk about my concerns.  Well, about a week later, the same pharmacist that I had called to complain about was calling me to apologize and you could just tell that she was disgusted that she even had to do so.  I expressed my disgust and told her that I was thinking about changing my pharmacy to CVS and she said “Well, if you feel as though you need to do that then go ahead.“  I couldn’t believe my ears!!  I realize that they are a large chain, but it irked me to no end to realize that she didn’t care if she lost me as a customer or not.  So, since that issue occured, I have not been back nor will I return.  I am quite happy with the service that I receive with CVS.  What are these people thinking about when they are rude to others?  Definitely a GREAT topic to discuss!!!!

What a great topic Ellie!

My husband and I were just talking about this a few weeks ago. How you go into a store or even at a resteraunt and they dont even smile. Or say how are you today? Its a little frusterating when you spend so much money at these places and they dont even be friendly to you.

I will say before I came a nanny I worked retail. I loved it but there were times where the customers just werent friendly either. You get some people who are demanding and rude to you , and I could see people I worked with that just would not be nice back.
I think of that when I walk into a Walmart and the greeter says hello. There are people that dont even look at the greeter, who was nice to say “hello, how are you?“. I always make a point to say hi and how are you today to the greeters.
I loved it when I worked retail and someone gave me a smile back or asked how I was.