This summer, I decided I needed some valuable, real world minimum wage experience. So I sought out two jobs that I knew would fit the bill: a clothing store and a restaurant. Both jobs were very different, but obviously had the same goal of keeping the customer happy. And they were definitely a learning experience.
1. It only takes one grumpy person to ruin your day.
Once I started interacting with people all the time, I started making even more of an effort to be kind to those I was interacting with on a day-to-day basis. It only takes one customer yelling about how long the wait time, or about how slowly the line at the register is moving to turn your whole day into a frowny face. (Don’t be that person.)
2. There is a lot happening behind the scenes that you don’t know about.
You enter the restaurant, and I, the hostess, tell you there is a 30 minute wait for your party of 6. You see other people waiting in the lobby, and you see that the restaurant is completely full, but that doesn’t stop you from sighing and rolling your eyes.
Our servers are probably overwhelmed, and our kitchen probably more so. Sometimes we put people on a wait for a number of reasons: the kitchen is backed up, and you’ll be waiting for your food for a long time (which we don’t want); the server is new, or is trying to fix a mistake for another customer, or has big parties, which means you’ll be waiting for a long time (again, we don’t want that); or there are just no clean or empty tables anywhere. If I could get you seated right away, I would, cause then you wouldn’t be sitting here and glaring at me. There is stuff happening that is out of my control, and even though you probably don’t care, I am just the messenger.
3. Be appreciative.
My jobs interacting with people have taught me to interact with those helping me, checking me out at the grocery store, or making my coffee. I’ve always been kind to service workers, and have distanced myself from those who aren’t polite toward service workers, but I think that being treated like I’m invisible has made me that much more appreciative toward them. Being nice to people isn’t difficult, it’s not time consuming. It’s easy, and it makes everyone’s day a little bit easier. Like the 80s Loverboy song says, “Everybody’s working for the weekend.”
4. Be understanding.
The restaurant being out of avocado today isn’t going to impact your life in the long run, but yelling at the person who is trying to help you might. At both places that I work, the clothing store and the restaurant, we will offer you as many alternatives and ways to solve your problem as we can. We will offer to order your item for you, or call another store. We’ll give you as many alternatives as we can and try to make you as happy as we can. Mika says, “Relax, take it easy.” And sometimes, as a customer, you gotta.