Who ever's Next

One thing to remember when providing service is the choice of words we use. Some words can come across as rude or surly to others, even though we don't realize it when we speak.

My mother was an English teacher and I grew up having y grammar corrected on a regular basis. As I write I can hear her voice in the back of my head correcting me when I use poor English. She left this world six years ago, but I still hear her.

Anyway, today I went to a coffee shop and had to wait in line. As the person in front of me got served the girl at the counter said "I can help who ever's next." My thought was she may be able to, I am sure she 'can' help, but does she want to? And, I am here to spend some money, I am the customer, I don't like being refered to as 'who ever.' (My mother's voice pops into my head when others use poor English as well.)

I don't think the girl at the coffee shop meant to be surly, she probably had no idea how she came across. It would have been better to say "May I help the next person in line, please?"

Managers: create simple scripts for your employees to use. Make them easy to remember and use positive reinforcement to encourage your employees to get in the habit of saying the right thing. I am positive this one step will improve your service scores. it can't hurt, it can only help.