Waiting in Line

"Your service is veeerrryyy slow! Four people just walked out because of your slow speed!" Thus says the lady upon reaching the till. The cashier manning the front counter seemed at a lost because all the while he thought he was doing his best to move the line fast. He was wrong based on the lady's feedback. Another staff who heard the lady's disappointment walked to her and apologized. He said they will do something about it. He then went to the manager and relayed the customer's feedback.

Time is of utmost importance to most people I know. If there's one thing we all have in common, it's time. Some people have the time to wait, most people don't. I don't know if there's wisdom in waiting too long just to get a cup of coffee or a breakfast sandwich. I am a customer myself and I hate it when I wait in line for too long for stupid reasons. Top of them all is cutting cost on manpower. Patience is surely not a virtue when there are 10 or 15 people in line and you find one cashier doing all the work. From getting your orders to repeating them to assembling and presenting them to you and ends with a wish for you to have a great day when the start ain't that great after all. You'll be lucky if that person assigned to man the counter is highly skilled in his or her job. But still, it doesn't remove the fact that a great disservice is being done to customers. This is true in supermarkets as well. You see the queue reaching the frozen or meat section and the supervisor or manager doesn't even care to break the line by opening a cash register or two because they are cutting cost on their manpower.

Are we left with no choice? Can we stop going to these outlets whose blatant disrespect for our time is being pushed to the limit? I just did that in some of the outlets I've been through. The fact is there are plenty of choices, there are so many options, so many stores, eateries, bars, cafes, supermarkets, retail stores, etc., which respect their customers' time. I will be blogging about them every now and then to help you make an informed decision where to go.

Oh, by the way, have you asked that person who is solely manning the counter what s/he feels when s/he is at work? Management should listen. So many discontentment arise because of false savings. Add to the fact that employee morale is below sea level. If you happen to go to one of the lousiest service-oriented stores of any kind, try this experiment. You'll realize that you, who's waiting in line, and the person handling the line have the same feeling. Most often than not, both of you are disgusted over dis-service!