There's a new employee at my usual Loop Starbucks that started a few months ago. He isn't like the rest of the coldly efficient staff—he's perky, talkative and relentlessly chipper. I'm an antisocial morning person, so for a couple of months I tried to avoid the line with him at the register whenever possible.
But then, one strangely outgoing day, I told him that the employees at a different Starbucks nicknamed me "Tall Mild" because that's all I ever ordered. He said "That's a shame. They should have learned your name, and called you that. What’s your name? I promise to try my best to learn it and call you that from now on." So I told him my name, and after a day of being reminded, he learned it, greeting me whenever I walked in the door.
And you know what? Despite my usual predilection
for robotic efficiency, I kind of like the attention. It's pretty cool to be
personally recognized in this usually anonymous coffee chain of interchangeable
locations and rapid employee turnover.
But how do you
feel? Would you rather be served in an efficient, polite yet detached manner, or
a warm, personalized approach? And how does a business best accommodate both
moods, especially when they may occur in the same person on different
days?
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