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Dissecting Service

I met an interesting Uber driver on my way to the airport recently. He had been a career insurance salesman and was doing this Uber thing for fun not the money. It was before 4 pm and I was his last ride for the day. We chatted about selling life insurance and what made for a compelling customer experience. After a long day it was refreshing to hear a voice that was not pursuing goals like crazy and enjoying his life and conversations with random strangers. 

I spend a lot of my professional life dissecting customer experience and its second nature for me to mentally catalog both the good and bad ones that I have. This was definitely a good one. I did not have to wait too long for the bad. At the airport, I wanted to grab a bite and the only reasonable option was a bagel store. Two young women were running the place and my repeated efforts to get their attention to place my order failed. 

They simply refused to acknowledge me and there were no other customers anywhere in sight. It was a truly bizarre experience - I left there confused and still hungry. Later that evening I did get something to eat and could put some distance between the event and my feelings. It felt like a good time to dissect the negative experience more professionally. 

First thing that came to mind is the company in question is completely devoid of a customer experience culture. If there was any, I would have seen some shred of it even in a negative encounter. No surprise that the average salaries are very low - which would only attract transient or sub-par (or both) talent. 

Employee engagement on the job from what I could see was completely missing. The two women who completely ignored me might have worked their shift and getting ready to leave - for their salary, they could not be blamed if they did not want to extend their work day past end of shift. The display case where the bagels sat looked chaotic - like someone had rifled through stuff and not bothered to get things back in order - again likely a consequence of not being paid enough to do anything beyond what is minimally needed. 

No surprise either that the Glassdoor reviews are terrible. This is not a place anyone dreams of working. I am thinking if I was one of those young ladies and I was motivated, I would be trying hard to find work at a Starbucks or a Costco to improve my quality of life. If I was one of those who like to whine and complain then I would do little to change my situation but hate it anyway. Either way, my customer would be left holding the bag - my mind and heart would not be engaged in providing good service. It's amazing what a little space from a negative event and a good meal will do to a person's perspective. 

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