Living What They Preach

So, I have spent about 10 hours in training for my new part-time retail job. Some of it was in person, some via video and yesterday quite a bit online. Throughout the training, everyone has emphasized customer service, helpfulness and basically being kind.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before. The cynical me was thinking, what company does NOT say it emphasizes customer service? And in reality, how many stores have I been in where I felt customer service was important?

While setting up a computer for my training, the manager on duty had to take a call from a customer. His tone was friendly, professional and more than that, it was kind. I could tell the customer was happy at the end of the call.

Later, I left the computer looking for a staffer to ask a question. The first person I encountered did not know me from Adam (Eve?). I asked my question expecting him to think I am an idiot. He listened to everything I said, then spent a good 3 minutes giving me a very thorough answer.

While sitting at the computer, several other staff members stopped by to say Hi and ask how my training was going.

As the store closed and I was leaving, the employees on the floor took the time to say goodbye and asked when I would be back.

Needless to say, I was stunned. Every single person I encountered who works for this company was friendly! They all seemed to care how I was doing!

I know there are a lot of people who would read this and say, "What's the big deal?" Let's just say that since graduating from college in the early 1980s, I have never had a job in my professional career where employees treated each other so well. Don't get me wrong -- I have had the group of friendly co-workers and that one amazing boss. But I have never experienced a company culture like this -- a company culture that says "let's all be nice", and the employees actually are nice!

Though training is rarely fun, I went home last night feeling pretty good. If I have to work a second job for a little while, I am so lucky to be working at a company like this! Though I had expected to have to learn to do this job, I didn't expect I would be learning something so basic that I should have been doing for years.