One of my favorite TV shows of all time is The Office.
In season 5, episode 7 there is a great scene between Michael, Jim and Dwight. Both Jim and Dwight have been (erroneously) tacked for bad customer service scores. So Michael takes it upon himself to train the two of them on how to treat customers. What ensues is a hilarious, quite dramatic and entertaining scene of Jim outwitting Dwight …yet again.
As I visit service based businesses, this scene comes to mind way too often. I recently donated some clothes to the Salvation Army. As I dropped the bag of clothes in the hamper, the gentleman who worked there couldn’t stop himself from attempting to make me smile. It was quite clear his goal was to brighten my day. I can say for certain that man deserves a more praise than just this mention. He made me feel good, he made me want to come back and most importantly, he made me want to tell someone how pleasant going to the Salvation Army was. What is a shame is that his excellent professionalism and customer service in that instance won't go beyond the audience in BMWP.
When Jim introduces himself as Bill Buttlicker. Dwight, being the complete idiot that he is, makes a smug remark; challenging the notion that anyone would have such a name.
It’s this type of smug attitude you can be sure to witness in just about any potential interaction you have with humanity while they are at the workplace. What I’ve learned is that people who tend to behave in this manner have a professional imbalance. It’s the doctor who genuinely enjoys practicing medicine, but doesn’t enjoy patients. The bartender who loves to concoct drinks but hates drunk people. They don’t want the natural friction, or any predictable derailments in the perfect idealized workflow of their day. When any of this is interrupted, they lash out in an attempt to make your day just as bad.
It’s hard to choose a profession that you ultimately enjoy, because there’s generally one (or more) aspect(s) of the job that you abhor. With people like this, that one thing is usually…well…people.
This brings me to “x in public". We are slowly seeing a movement in the startup community of “building in public”. All this means is not hiding any part of your process, progress or failures as you attempt to build a business. My personal belief is that a dollar is way to valuable to have been spoiled by an unpleasant interaction or unprofessionalism. I think this “x in public” ethos can be expanded to many many professional settings.
I think just about every professional interaction should be intermediated by a third party primarily to audit the behaviors of the party whose job it is to accommodate its customers. Its a bit extreme, but we ultimately act better when being observed, unless you’re Dwight.
The paradox of the scene is that Dwight, in his eternal idiocy, would’ve never challenged an actual customer named Bill Buttlicker. He was challenging Jim, because Jim symbolizes everything he is not. Yet, Dwight ends up being the one who is being taught a lesson on customer service when in reality his customer service is impeccable.
This scene, in a strange way, embodies how all professional interactions should go in the future. This (pretend) professional interaction was indeed intermediated by a third party- Michael - who ensured the customer walked away pleased, even if he had to fire Dwight to get the sale.
More on this concept next week.