As my husband and I we were checking out of an Inn on the central coast of California, we asked the front-office agent for directions. Showing her a driving map of an area we wanted to explore for photo opportunities, I was totally unprepared for her response. She looked up at us briefly and said flatly, “My generation doesn’t do directions that way.”
What? I am rarely speechless, but I was so dumbfounded by this clueless and rude response that all I could do was stare at this young woman as she added, “Things have become technologically driven, and I haven’t looked at a map since middle school.”
As we drove away, I asked myself if I was being overly sensitive, or was this situation utterly outrageous? Am I entitled to directions only when armed with a smart phone or a GPS (which by the way, I was in possession of)? Can I expect to be treated with dignity by service providers when asking for directions the old-fashioned way?
My first thought was that she was apparently unaware—or ignoring completely—the cardinal rule of providing service: It’s not about you. Secondly, is it not a crucial part of any service job to understand and cater to one’s customer base? In the case of this central California Inn, it was not exactly a “hip” demographic, as far as I could tell. The only bright side, I guess, is that she didn’t add insult to injury with a condescending “Ma’am” to reinforce her incredulity as to just how silly people like us manage to muddle through life without technology-enabled objects, tattered relics of papyrus in hand.
We all need to get regular sources of inspiration in our jobs as service providers,which is why I have developed my Spirit in Service customer training program. It shows managers and employees how to be inspired from the inside out with best practices regarding attitude, the importance of language and finding the humor and joy in your everyday activities.
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one word: rude.