"How Can I Help You" is an Invitation, Not a Greeting

Communication is not simply about the words you speak but the tone and gestures you use to convey the message. Sarcastic facial expressions and a snide delivery can make the most beautiful love sonnets sound insulting.

And so when I hear a team of six or seven employees at a New York City Dunkin’ Donuts bark "How can I help you?" with a poisonous cocktail of disinterest and frustration, I cannot help but question how committed they are to those words. If they cannot be bothered to wait until I have a chance to look over the menu board and then greet me with a smile, are they really going to go out of their way to "help" me?

Probably not, given that they do not even keep track of who they have agreed to "help" and are known to repeatedly deliver that same invitation to customers, obnoxious tone and all.

A testament to how "best practices" get bastardized throughout the marketplace, it is clear that these employees are saying what they are told they should say without thinking about the meaning behind their words. You do not greet someone by offering to help them—in fact, you are actually being thoroughly unhelpful by badgering them with a rude, unappreciative tone the second they walk in the door.

You greet people with a smile and a "hello," and then you commit to doing everything in your power to help them through the transaction. If they need more time to scan the menu, you give it to them. If they need a recommendation on which flavor coffee to order or whether the new donut is good, you give it to them. You do not express your bitter frustration the second they hesitate on an order.

Most adults know what it is like to hold a job, and few would even attempt to present the notion that the working world is all fun and games. Work, quite frankly, can be very difficult and unrewarding at times, and so the idea that front-line agents are as excited to satisfy customers as they once were for Santa’s arrival on Christmas morning is unrealistic. No matter how much some might talk about it in customer management articles, few agents live for serving customers.

That reality is not a valid excuse for poor customer-centricity. A customer service representative’s job is not simply to show up at the office and take orders. It is to deliverable a valuable, delightful experience for customers, and if the agent’s behavior and demeanor are undermining that objective, he is not doing his job correctly.

An accountant’s hatred for his job is no excuse to forego preparing an income statement one quarter. A warehouse employee’s hatred for his job is no excuse to forego packaging and shipping orders on Monday.

And so no matter how far from passionate a cashier might be about helping customers, that is what he is there to do. That is what determines successful or unsuccessful performance. That is what creates his worth to the organization.

I have no illusion that a coffee shop cashier has nothing in life more important than making my experience enjoyable. But when I enter the restaurant and answer his call to help me through the process, help me through the process he shall. Smiling through his greeting, understanding my goals for the transaction and executing on that understanding is not a bonus—it is the bare minimum required of any fruitful agent-customer interaction.

A customer service representative’s job is not to tell me he is going to help me (and certainly not to yell that sentiment at me). It is to actually help me. And if your organization’s management structure is not creating an atmosphere that compels its agents to do so, it is time to rethink how you approach the customer experience.