The family and I visited our local mall yesterday, mainly to accomplish one of my wife’s objectives, we absolutely HAD to have a head band for our newborn like Tori & Dean’s….and the Apple store had opened at the mall that weekend. (more on that in a later post…)

I was dragging a bit from exhaustion and decided that a cup of coffee was in order.  I waited in line to get my pick me up and was finally greeted by the barista (aka, coffee boy…).  I asked for a regular coffee which is right up their alley and doesn’t require blenders, caramel, mocha stuff, latte, etc. Straight up coffee.  I receive my coffee, settle up and then go to the cream and sugar area which was crawling with folks waiting for their more compicated coffee concoctions. I had to push and shove and ask politely a few times to move up to the preparation station. I arrived and placed my coffee down on the counter to customize it. Somehow, my clumsy hand knocked the coffee and dumped it all over my hands and the counter top. I was embarrased as I had an audience now and was also in a bit of pain from the 200 degree hot coffee burning my typing fingers!

The senior barista makes her way over after seeing the commotion and gives me a dirty like and then goes to get a clean up rag.  She had no concern for my scorched fingers, didn’t really care that HALF of my coffee was now on the counter, didn’t offer to refill the cup and just basically ignored me at the counter waiting for me to go away because I had interrupted her flow. Guess those recent training courses where they closed the NATIONAL chain of coffee stores really paid off.

While I realize this has NOTHING to do with search engine marketing or web design, I couldn’t help but reflect on how we can all improve our customer service. It’s the little things that make all of the difference, attention to detail, common courtesy, and I guess mainly a respect for human beings.

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