Nice post – She’s what I call a ‘Sales Prevention Officer’ – it’s not necessarily her fault. It could be the systems, the policies, attitudes, the ‘mananagement’,whatever. The point is, it stops you ‘buying’ and even worse, stops you going back. It’s actually worse than that – you also tell others (and I’m over here in the UK!!!).

Anyone running or managing a business should be on the look out for their Sales Prevention Officers and the things that cause them. They then need to eliminate them (the causes, not necessarily the individuals!!!). It’s a simple thing, but a great question is ‘How easy are we to buy from?’. Work out what irritates and annoys customers, and prevents them getting the service they want, and then stop doing it!

We often look enviously across to the US as ‘role models’ when it comes to customer service, and my experiences there are that generally, you are a lot better at it – glad to see you that you have Sales Prevention Officers too! I know that didn’t help you get your lunch, but it certainly makes me feel ‘normal’!

It’s probably a good question. The fact remains, she did nothing to deal with my concerns and frustration. And even if she had been “empowered” to deal with this – she did not.

I interact with employees every day in other businesses where they do handle themselves accordingly, or they are out of a job. And I find those are happier employees anyway, and enjoy their job more.

As for the wifi question, if you don’t want people hanging out, then don’t offer wifi. Or make them pay for it. But I think this is a mistake. I hadn’t ordered lunch yet, but I had gotten coffee, so I was a paying customer, although one cup of joe might not qualify me in their minds as a “customer” – I don’t know.

Thank you both for your comments!

Let me back up a bit – I am in complete agreement that employees need to be empowered. Without a doubt that is one of the biggest problems companies have as it relates to customer service. However, in this case, I think the bigger problem is that of empathy or understanding your customer.

At the time, you were not a paying customer. I don’t necessarily think that a free cup of coffee or a coupon makes sense. What I think she could have done was empathized with your situation and tried to work with to come up with a solution. I also think she needed to explain the rationale behind the 30 minute policy.

I’ve often wondered about the advantages of having wi-fi. If I’m a small coffee shop, I do want people coming in. The problem is, what happens to those people who come in, get a cup of coffee and sit there for 3 hours taking up a table. It’s an issue – one that Panera has to deal with because if there are people taking up tables and not ordering, then there are less tables for paying customers.

I think that the policy isn’t necessarily the problem, its how its communicated. I imagine most people understand that to use their wi-fi, you should be a paying customer. Why not print out the day’s password on a receipt? Put the 30-minute policy on a poster or table-top. Something to logically explain the policy.

Your statements on the empowerment are dead-on though Todd – you couldn’t be more right. But you first have to make sure the employee cares enough to try to solve the problem. In this case, it sounds like the employee could care less.

Robyn