Sometimes while wading in the wishing fountain of life, we get so busy picking up the pennies that we fail to see the dollar coins.
I was at my local Target the other day, the store was busy just a few days before Christmas. The ticks left on the Christmas clock were almost ticked out, and there were many men, myself included, who were just beginning to consider the Christmas thing. In my case, the perfect present was a few doors down. I was the proud owner of the ultimate romantic gift for my wife — a set of car wash gift certificates.
My shopping job at Target was somewhat different this day. I had been tasked with locating Rolo candies, but I had no idea where to look. Thankfully for me, as I walked into this Target store I saw someone at the entry. I appreciated the fact that her role was to provide that little touch of extra service. She was apparently there to greet customers and hand out carts to harried shoppers.
So I walked up to her and waited for her to hand carts to those who arrived just before me. Then I watched as she began to hand carts to those who arrived after me. Then I watched as she grabbed more carts. Her job had somehow morphed from providing superior service to an assembly line of cart-hand-grin-cart-hand-cart. I had to use a team of horses and a legal writ of habeus corpus to pry her hands away from the next cart, but eventually she looked at me.
As a customer service geek, I had to smile. This lovely lady had been assigned to provide service at the front of the store, but her interpretation of the task was somewhat different. Maybe she had lost focus. Maybe there was so much forest she had forgotten to notice the trees. In any case, the cart-to-hand game had to be less than festive. Boring, perhaps. Monotonous. It probably had to go in the “Why did the managers do this to me? I hate them all” category.
But it didn’t have to. A change in instructions or mindset could have changed everything: She could have been the lucky girl honored to provide a lift to the store’s shoppers. Most of us would agree that nothing lifts our spirits like service to others, and nobody had a better opportunity to do just that — and get paid for it — than my front-end friend.
This whole event would be meaningless if it were isolated to stores and employees. The entire Christmas season is full of missed opportunities and skewed vision. For example, as you look back at your own Christmas experience, how often did you get so bogged down in the tasks of Christmas? These probably included decorating your home, buying gifts for kids, parents, neighbors, in-laws and your spouse, gift wrapping, attending parties and cleaning — a lot of stress. Did the execution of these tasks ever cause you to lose the joy of the season? I didn’t think so.
The same kind of forgotten purpose happens the rest of the year. Trips to school can be an opportunity to capture the kids and force them to talk. Midnight trips to the grocery store can be the world’s biggest pain — or an opportunity to gain relationship points.
In my book, “Creating Passionate Customers,” I define a customer as anyone who can affect your success. Though the statement may seem obvious at first, it has far-reaching consequences. Your chjildren and your spouse become customers. Your extended family fits on the list. You may realize that your family is your most important set of customers, since no other group can affect your success more profoundly.
A passion for service can be found in the business world. A book called “The Fred Factor” by Mark Sanborn shows how a postal carrier was able to turn a mind-numbingly routine job into meaningful service. Another book called “Willie’s Way” by Phillip Van Hooser shows how a cab driver did the same. As CEO of our own lives, careers, and church and civic duties, a passion for success requires a passion for service.
All of us have our cart-hand-cart-hand moments — moments where we forget why we are doing things and just do the task. In the wishing well of life, the cart-hand game represents the pennies. The dollar coin is found in real service —the kind that makes our relationships and careers flourish. Given that each of us is the CEO of me.com, perhaps we should all look up, evaluate the big picture and find opportunities to really serve — to especially serve our customers who are most important to us.
Garth Haslem is the author of "Creating Passionate Customers." Garth is also a speaker and consultant. For access to all of Garth's articles, please Like "Garth Haslem - speaker and author" on Facebook. www.passionatecustomers.com