Birds of a feather flock together.
Posted: February 23, 2006 Filed under: Uncategorized 5 Comments »I’m a fan of psychographic research. Although more and more I find that certain aspects of a person’s behavior can be “out there,” more often than not, one can find patterns between people who live in the same area, work in the same area, use the same products, services, etc. And there are correlations between what magazines people read and what they buy or if they watch certain sports and what they eat…. You get the point.
But, what about people who work for certain companies. Not industries, mind you. Companies. Why is it that the people who work for Nordstrom are all solicitous, polite, helpful and people who work at K-Mart are not. Okay, that’s an easy one (I think) since the folks at Nordstrom have great training programs and are paid commission. The workers at K-Mart probably make minimum wage. I get it.
But some companies – like the one today that came (finally – 5 hours late) to fix our brand new oven? Each person from A&E that I encountered was unpleasant. From the scheduler to the digitized reminder call. You know they didn’t even think it was a problem that they gave me an 8am-noon window and came at 4:46 pm? What the…..? The man I spoke to at 11:45 am was snippy. As was the woman at 12:30 pm. The tech was no Prince Charming on the phone either.
On the other hand, every person I talked to at Faucet Depot was polite and helpful. I spoke to someone very nice when I ordered a sink grid to fit my new undermount sink. When it arrived, it didn’t fit. Imagine my disappointment. So I called and spoke to Marilyn. I explained the situation – that the manufacturer had given me the part number and that it didn’t fit. She was more than willing to take it back and have me order a different one and she worked her butt off to help me find the right one to order. I had to terminate the call. Long story. When I called back, Steven was even nicer than Marilyn. He figured out that there was no grid that fit. He asked why I wanted a grid in the first place. I explained that I didn’t want a scratched up sink and he patiently explained to me how to care for the sink with Bar Keepers Friend and a Scotch Pad and that, unless I really wanted one, I didn’t need a grid.
My whole point is that one entire company gave a great impression and one entire company gave a terrible impression.
Do companies choose people that fit their personality profile or do people choose companies that fit their personality?
Or do they meld – kinda like people start looking like their dogs or spouses?
This is what I thought about today.
I think alot of times the management sets the tone for how the employees treat the customers. If management browbeats the employees and has a negative attitude toward them, that gets transferred to the customer. If management is kind and encouraging and sympathetic to employees, that also trickles down to the customers. Of course, even the best employee can have a rotten day or have personal issues that affect their work, but when the all the personnel of a company are nasty to customers, it’s because of management. Simply put, management does not reward (either financtially or otherwise) positive behavior, so employees see no reason to be positive to customers. Alot like children. I’ve worked at so many places where the simplest problems could have been resolved if management would just be positive rather than negative. It’s amazing, yet it seems to escape so many managers, especially here in Florida.
that’s a great topic Wendy. It seems that on a whole service has gone down dramatically. When you get good service, it’s such a shock. I think it’s a little of both things you stated. Companies probably attract and only hire people who are willing to project their image.
In and Out Burger, an extremely popular hamburger joint out here, only hires teenagers who can actually speak, look presentable, and work hard.
That’s because the company pays well, and trains well. And only hires teens who fit their expectations.
So it’s actually both things working together.
Oh, and thanks for putting me on your unrolled list!
I worked for a major non-profit once where everyone was always unhappy. I watched employee after employee come into the organization with a positive, happy, motivated attitude and get more and more unhappy and more and more angry and upset with the way they were treated by their bosses and by the organization as a whole that they couldn’t be positive when dealing with the clients. Myself included. It isn’t just that people don’t see any reason to be positive. They are over worked, under appreicated, get in trouble from their bosses when they try to go out of their way to help, aren’t allowed to take any extra steps to help people out and aren’t given the information they need to do it even if they wanted to.
Interestingly, I’ve worked at KMart too, and got much more training and respect from the management there. My experience there tells me that it is much more the kind of people who will apply for positions there then the management. Anyone smart and hard-working got promoted fast and got pay raises often to keep them from going to another company. There were just so few smart and hard working people willing to work at KMart.
Great comments! Thanks! Melissa – KMart was better than the not-to-be-named nonprofit? Wowie.