Rule 1: Prioritise the Work

Café Culture

The other day I walked into a café; it was a popular place, there were people crowded around all the tables.  Three members of staff were on duty. They were having a long and detailed conversation about a stock-take.

I stood and waited.

I waited and stood.

The staff gave me a good stiff ignoring.

The queue behind me got longer and longer and the members of staff got more animated about their stock.

After a few minutes, impatience overcame my English reserve and I coughed (politely) to get their attention. They looked up at me then looked back at their stock list. Finally two of the staff members ambled off and the last one grudgingly turned his attention to me and the burgeoning queue.

An alternative approach

Last year I walked into a furniture showroom.  I was flustered and running very late, it was twenty past five on a Saturday evening, the shop was about to close and the man behind the counter had paperwork piled around him, after a long and busy day he was trying to sort out his customers’ orders before he could go home.

“I’m sorry to bother you” I said, “you look very busy”.

He looked up, gave me a big smile and said “I’m never too busy for a customer, sir.”

The point of the story:

This sounds like a lesson in customer service, and it is to a point, but it is also a lesson in management priorities.

Is it more important that your staff sort out:

• the stock
• the filing
• the budgeting
• the appraisals
• the quality audit
• the forthcoming visit from the Chief Executive Officer

Should they fix their internal issues, or, should they focus on the work for the customer?

Rule 1: Prioritise the work

Don’t let anything get in the way of the work for the customer.

Epilogue

The furniture shop was John Lewis. In the last 5 minutes of his day, the shop assistant sold me a sofa.

As for the café?  I’d like to tell you it went bust, but it was on a cross-channel ferry, the customers have nowhere else to go.

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