Un-Service
My son just turned 21 (wow, I can’t believe it!), and one of the ways he wanted to celebrate was by going to the movies — and ordering food to eat while we watched. We haven’t done either of those things with him in a long time so it was a fun thing we gladly said yes to.
Ordering the food, though, turned out to be a completely different experience than what we remembered. In the past, you’d simply press a button, a server would come to your seat, take your order, and bring your food. Nowadays, things are different. You have to order before you get to your seat (which I forgot to do — so I ended up going back to the concession stand), then your food is delivered to you.
That part would have been fine… except for the person who brought us our food. She didn’t seem like she even wanted to be doing it! She dropped the tray on the seat in front of us and left—without even bringing our drinks. She vanished so quickly that by the time my wife and I realized the drinks were missing, I had to walk all the way back to the concession area again. There, a different young person behind the counter nonchalantly told me that the person that took our order initially “was supposed” to give me drink cups — so that we could get our drinks ourselves from the self-service machines.
Let’s just say the whole customer experience was less than desirable.
Between the three people we dealt with — the one taking the order, the one delivering the food, and the one behind the counter when I came back — no one seemed to care about our experience or even noticed the mess-ups. It all felt routine, like they were just “going through the motions.”
Not to mention the food costs rivaled that of a theme park.
Yes, I know things have changed — how food at your seat in a movie theater is handled is different now. But this experience could have been just fine if the three people we interacted with had simply cared about making it go smoothly. Instead, we were met with a “wish-I-wasn’t-here” attitude..
When your business changes policies or procedures, how do you respond? Do you let those changes affect how you treat your customers? Or do you hold the line — treating them with the same care and respect you always would?
A Real Christian Businessman knows that excellence in service doesn’t depend entirely on what we do — but how we do it. It’s not about just “doing our job.” It’s about us doing it with heart, with integrity, and with care — treating every customer as someone made in God’s image.
Next time we interact with a customer this week, regardless of what our company’s policies or regulations dictate, let’s take a moment and remember that we represent more than just a business.
Serve with respect.
Serve with love.
“Rendering service with goodwill, as to the Lord and not to man… knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.” — Eph. 6:7-8a (ESV)