In case you had not read my previous blog issues, I'm describing the three P's of providing excellent customer service. The first two P’s stand for People and Policy.  The third P is for Procedures. The procedures and policies can be very similar, but they are different.  An example of this might be if a grocery store had an “express” register or line that was limited to twelve items or less.  The policy is the limit, twelve items or less.  The procedure might be how the cashier would handle the situation if a customer came through the line with more than twelve items.

There are multiple options for this situation.  One option might be to politely apologize to the customer while pointing out the sign indicating the policy, then directing the customer to another register open to all.  A different option might be to serve the customer at your register with or without alerting the customer to the twelve-item limit.  Perhaps you would have the procedure to be if the customer was barely over the limit, say under fifteen items, you would help the customer without commenting on the policy.  If a customer entered the line with a full basket, then you might point out the sign and redirect them to another register.  Yes, I have seen customers go into the express lane with a full basket, totally oblivious of the sign staring them straight in the face.

As you can see there can be many ways to handle any situation.  Another possibility would be that if the store was busy and the other registers were backed up, that you would invite a customer with more than twelve items to your lane to ease the tension.  Even that can backfire, however.  Let’s say you take a customer with half a cart or more full of groceries and while you’re serving that customer, another customer comes to your lane with just a few items, noticing the Express Lane sign.  Then they see you are helping a customer with many more items.  Most customers would probably understand and not be bothered.  But there can always be that one who may be put off by having to wait for a customer who normally should not be in that lane.  Working with the public can be very trying at times.

While policies require planning and are mostly a management decision, procedures require planning and training.  I would suggest that there be a mastermind session with both management and staff to decide what procedures might be best.  This is an area where management should take input from the employees who are in the battle every day and who have seen where certain policies might not work as they had been intended.  This is also an area where having well-trained employees given a certain flexibility by management to use their wisdom is important.  We all know that old saying, “the best laid plans of mice and men….”, comes into play.  No matter how much you plan for anything, there can always be an exception to any rule. 

If you have had some issues on how to best handle situations, let’s have a discussion.  Click Here to schedule a complimentary 30-minute session with me.