What do you do when something is out of your control? Just the other day, two of our checkers called in sick and it was only down to Debbie and I, from 6 PM to midnight. Lines are building up because customers had just gotten out of work and anxious to buy or make dinner. What do you do if there’s only two of you and about 20 people in line? What do you do when there’s hecklers that keeps asking when are we going to get another checker or why are we so slow? Yelling and being mad about the lines does not make things go faster. We see the lines and believe us, we really don’t want to check every single person out without help. The best thing we’ve done over the years was just ignore it and go on with our business as fast as we can. That was until I received a special email from Melissa of Huckleberry Prairie, who was once the manager of a grocery store. She wrote me a list of her pet peeves and although we can relate to them all; she mentioned this particular moment and how we can alleviate it…
Hecker #1: Can you guys get another checker up here!
Heckler #2: Do you realize how many people is waiting!?
We can hear the grumbles and pouting. We have to do something before the customers form an alliance against us.
Heckler #3: Your lines are long!
Then it hit me. I remembered what Melissa wrote…
LUIS, CAN YOU CHECK PLEASE!
You can sense the tension slowly dying down as the customers wait for Luis…
A few minutes go by…
LUIS, CAN YOU CHECK PLEASE!
The lines became smaller and smaller. The heckler’s stopped their abrasive comments and still no sign of Luis.
When things got normal Debbie turns to me and says,
Debbie: Who’s Luis?
Me: [shrug] It worked didn’t it?
THANK YOU MELISSA! You definitely saved our butts on that one. Be sure to check out Melissa’s blog, Huckleberry Prairie. She’s one funny lady.
