This post is adapted from a Facebook reflection that I wrote on December 21, 2014.
Gentle lessons in humility occur at the most surprising moments!
A few days before Christmas I braved the crowds in Target to get something relatively inconsequential (please don't ask me why I did this), but in doing so I passed through the aisles (and aisles. and aisles.) of Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, cards, etc. I happened to notice an employee attempting to organize the gift bags, and I also noted that the paper plate and napkin display was a shambles. Something about this (my penchant for order? my distaste for chaos? my sympathy for a young person doing her best against what would turn out to be significant odds?) inspired me to offer to help. So with her somewhat disbelieving assent, I put down my things and organized the plates and napkins.
It took ONE HOUR. As I was doing it I found an opened battery package with the batteries missing (of course), a bag of Starbucks coffee, something made of glass, and all manner of related and unrelated items. I watched a woman roll her cart right over a package of plates that had fallen on the floor. And I watched a woman pick out a package of napkins from one of my displays, look at it, and toss it back on the shelf.
Her husband looked at me and said, "You're trying to clean this up and we're just messing it up again." So I just smiled, as the Target employee kept on doing. But here's what I was thinking:
1. This is an interesting way to get qualified for a job. I got offered one on the spot!
Customer experience is something we read about and talk about. Designing robust and meaningful customer experiences is part of my job. Yet here was something I hadn’t considered.
2. Behind every customer experience is a chain that starts (or ends) with a product that is on the shelf. But every day and night, people like the Target employee I helped have the experience of how we treat that product AND our regard, or disregard, for their time and effort in stocking and displaying it.
So, in fact, customer experience should not the job of the provider alone. We all have the ability, or responsibility, to contribute to a good one. Do you cheer at a sporting event? You are part of the experience. Do you dance at a wedding? You’re adding to the general sense of joy and celebration. Do you put the napkins back? You’re making it possible for someone else to find and enjoy them. And for a store employee to do something more productive.
In general, I am good about this ... but I'm sure that I can do better. And I hope that, if you have never considered this before, you will do the same.
