As one of the countless members of the customer service industry, I feel a little obliged to speak out on behalf of my fellow wage-slaves. Although I am a ride operator at a theme park, I am confident that the following applies to everyone under the wide umbrella of "wait on the customer hand and foot for money" occupations, from grocery store clerks to the girl serving up your latte.

We have name tags for a reason, darn it. Calling us by our names makes us feel like you actually care, if only a little, about us as a person, instead of viewing us as just another mindless, anonymous drone who exists only to fulfill your need at that moment -- and when we feel for long enough that the customers view us that way, we start to feel like that's what we actually are.

If you really appreciate an employee's service, take a few minutes to tell their manager about it. Really, it doesn't take much effort for you, but it makes an enormous difference for us. When we work hard to please you, the customer, it often goes completely unnoticed and unrewarded because the management is never around to see it -- and when we muster up the energy to care about our jobs and provide the best experience possible for you, it is then disheartening when we are rewarded for our work exactly the same as that other guy who just couldn't care less about you or his job.

Be reasonable in what you expect us to know. Don't ask the person minding the arcade games if a roller coaster on the other side of the park is open. Don't ask the person working in the deli section of the supermarket when the restrooms were last cleaned. Don't ask the person operating the roller coaster when and where you can get pictures with the costumed characters. I think you get the idea. To most people, the uniform sends the message, "I know everything that there is to know about every aspect of this store/theme park/restaurant/whatever-it-is," but that's not what it really means. We receive training relevant to our specific job and department only, we are not given constant updates about the state of every part of our workplace.

When something breaks down, don't ask us what's wrong with it or when it will be fixed. When the AC goes bust at Wal-Mart, the high school kid manning the register does not know what happened to it or when it will be fixed. When the roller coaster breaks down, the guy whose job it is to check the restraints is not the person to ask about what went wrong with the intricate structural mechanics of the ride. This is not only annoying, but can make the situation very uncomfortable for us, as answering the customer with "I don't know" in any situation is generally taboo in the customer service industry. The truth is that we are just as clueless as you are, because we are not mechanical experts. Once again, that is not part of the training we receive. If it was, do you think we'd be getting paid minimum wage? Which segues nicely into my next point . . .

Remember that, in almost all cases, we are being paid minimum wage, and we are constantly busy, so it is very hard to maintain a facade of eager, willing, proactive service -- or heck, even passive, polite service. We have bad days like everyone else, and we will not always be at our chipper, smiling best. However, you can do something to help with that -- see my first and last points.

Don't assume that you can treat us badly or be indifferent to us because you're paying our wages, because you're not. Our employer is paying our wages, and the checks will continue to come with or without your patronage.

Simple gestures are often very effective. Much like addressing us by our name, simply looking us in the eye, saying "thank you" like you mean it and smiling at us can really make us feel good about ourselves and what we're doing.

Remember, you, the customer, have the power to make us either feel that you value our services and that our work does matter, or like we're just another mechanical drone servicing an endless river of anonymous, vaguely impatient, samey strangers. The former takes a little bit of effort on your part, but the latter can easily be accomplished by simply doing nothing out of the ordinary.


Inspiration for writing this came partially from =FireFeathers' highly informative editorial, Tips for Tipping in a Restaurant [link]