Over the last few months, society has changed, yet again, its expectations on retail customer service.
I base that statement on three things:
- Conversations with clients
- Observations while I’m shopping
- Recent memes.
Memes only tell us how people who are online and are willing to post and express themselves feel about life. (Never get tricked into thinking that online opinions are majority opinions. There are a lot of echo chambers.) But still, it paints a picture.
At one point, this was how we felt about customer experience in the pandemic:
Notice that other retail workers–big box stores, car dealerships–are left out of the mix. That is perhaps telling.
We were scared and called our 2020 experience an apocalypse. But for most it was … not quite as extreme as we thought.
But many believe we are not out of the woods yet.
Even if we are out of the woods, for most it has been less apocalypse and more isolation and distraction.
Concerns about 2021, plus a society constantly distracted and instantly appeased, has led to some ugly interactions in the real world. You may pull up any video you want at any time in 1 second. But that part for your car is on backorder, and there are no rental cars in the city.
I did a search for customer service memes posted over the last month. Here are some choice cuts:
Retail is extremely challenging work. Most of my clients are automotive retail–code for “car dealership.” Dealership employees are the most creative people I’ve served: They stop at nothing to overcome boundaries, and they do it while enduring customers who treat them like peasants.
I’d hazard to guess that abuse from a customer happens at least once daily for most dealership frontline workers.
How do they thrive in that? They have some perspective about the day to day.
Out of all the industries I work with, car dealerships have the best stories. Most of the stories would probably lead to a lawsuit, so don’t expect a best-seller anytime soon. But what happens to them is unbelievably hilarious. The stories they share after the fact lower the tension in the room. “We’ll laugh about this some day.” (Some day soon!)
In other words, a sense of humor in retail is a must. Retail employees make some of the best memes, after all.
Retail workers, get some rest. Remember that tomorrow is a new day and that every season has an end. And meanwhile, keep collecting stories for your book.
(This barista is off to a good start.)
