She didn’t like it. I didn’t know what to say. Sorry wasn’t solving the issue and I didn’t see sincerity in her complaints. From where I stood she just wanted the attention. Maybe she lives alone.
Maybe shopping on the internet is her thing. Either way she’d made it a point to point out all of the things she didn’t enjoy about that product. I was in between hanging up and trying to keep the conversation going just so I could hear more from the lady who wanted to be heard. I wondered what her kitchen looked like or if she had 30 cats. She seemed like that type of person but then again I’m very good at making judgments.
Maybe that day my customer service skills were being tested. Maybe she was having a bad day but it seemed like either way here we were trying to figure out why the raisins were too clumped together and we put too much coconut in the bag and the shipping took too long and god knows what else. Either way what she didn’t know is that she wouldn’t be able to make me respond without anything other than a sincere apologetic response. She didn’t know the Mother Teresa of customer service was on the other end of the line.
I can’t change the challenges you have in your own life, but I’ll do my best to provide the little joys that take people away from those tough moments.
A bite isn’t just a bite in our world. I want the whole experience, the ritual, the routine to be memorable. When you’re sitting in the 2:30 meeting, I want you thinking about how good what you ate earlier was or checking your watch multiple times to see when it’s going to end so you can get to that sacred snack ground. And yet all this person saw was what she wanted to see, the finished product that she wasn’t happy with.
What she didn’t see was the days, weeks and months and constant grinding to get it right. The years that go into creating and refining processes and people to make sure these things stay on the rails. We take for granted what we use every single day. From the smallest items to the largest. We don’t think about who’s labor or manpower went into making that toilet we’re using we just use it. Like it’s our human right to have these things. Somehow these things just appear and we use them.
Call it a lack of appreciation or a failure to ask questions but we all are guilty of it from time to time. Today was her day. Nothing I was going to say would change her mind. We value feedback, we take food safety seriously, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that her replacement product is as delicious as the one she was expecting to get – nothing was going to work this time around.
Sometimes people are just there to feel important but I wonder if she ever think about what goes into the things she uses. Even a hint of curiosity would be enough for anyone to stop and think maybe this was just a one off or something that happened in transit. Maybe someone left a box on the back of a mail truck for too long and the sun beating down had an impact on the final product. It’s not your fault, it’s not our fault either but we’ll fall on the sword because we stand behind it regardless of what happens in between. When you see a final product all you see is that at the end of it’s iteration. You don’t see the headaches, the arguments, the confusion and the persuasion needed to convince people to give you a shot at the table. Along with this they don’t see that at the end of the day we’re just one option, and they’re just one person – and maybe we’re just not that into you either.