WHAT TO DO WHEN A CUSTOMER WANTS TO BE SERVED AHEAD OF OTHER WAITING CUSTOMER

WHEN A CUSTOMER WANTS TO BE SERVED AHEAD OF OTHER WAITING CUSTOMER - WHAT TO DO?
A Tutorial On Action Needed When A Customer Wants To Be Served Ahead Of Other Waiting Customers


THE SITUATION
Here’s a situation you may have encountered if you work in a retail environment. A customer in a line up at the cash register asks whether she can be served without waiting, because she is either in a hurry, or feels that her small number of items somehow justifies moving ahead of people with many more items to be processed at the check-out.

Denying the request may incur the ire of the customer requesting the “speed-up” while accommodating
the request may alienate the people ahead of her in the line. What do you do?

TECHNIQUES USED
■ Offering Choices/Empowering (1)

DIALOGUE
Four people are waiting in line at a grocery store. The first three people have full baskets while the fourth person has only three items.The customer with the fewest items gets your attention and asks if she can go first.

Customer: I’m in a real hurry and I only have a few items, so can I go ahead of these people?

Employee: Since these people have been waiting longer and might also be in a rush, it’s really up to them. (1) If they don’t mind, I can take you first.Otherwise, the wait is only a few minutes.

Customer: [to others in the line] Does anyone mind if I go ahead of you?

EXPLANATIONS
The cashier could have made a judgment call in this situation and simply made the decision himself, but that

would have put the cashier in the middle—really between a rock and a hard place.

Instead, the employee turns the responsibility for the decision back to where it belongs—to the people who might be inconvenienced.

He provides the opportunity for the customer in a hurry to ask the others (1), if she chooses to do so. It’s then up to the other customers. Not only is that the fairest way to deal with this situation, but it also sends the message that the customers who have been waiting are important to the employee.

HINTS
Notice that the cashier doesn’t volunteer to ask the other customers himself. He puts the onus (and the choice) to do so on the customer who wants to be served first.

Another reason for doing it this way is that it helps the other customers see the employee as neutral on this issue. In situations like this, the employee needs to have a unanimous “vote” in order to break with procedure. A majority vote is not enough to change the order/procedure.