This past weekend, my husband and I were in Northern Wisconsin and decided to do a little holiday shopping. It was lovely, a frozen little Currier and Ives looking town with unique stores and friendly shopkeepers…except for this one.

As soon as we entered we could ‘feel’ that the vibe in this store was not cheery as their neighbors had been, but what was it that had our moods plummeting from delighted and ready to buy to uneasy and wanting to leave in just a few short steps?

A nice variety of fun merchandise – check

Clean environment – check

Christmas music to boost the mood – check

Welcoming staff….ummm. Not so much. The problem was the employee ‘working’ that day.

There was only one employee working that day, but that doesn’t really matter since it was a very small place and we were the only customers in the store. A bell over the door rang announcing our arrival, but the gal working there didn’t greet us or acknowledge us in any way. I really hate that, out of professional habit whenever this happens I take note of how long it takes for the staff member to spring into action…it never happened. She just stayed near the rear of the store with her back to us, picking up merchandise, examining it and returning it to the shelves. I tried to get her attention by asking some questions out loud, but they went unanswered. I seriously think we could have robbed the place and she would not have turned around. Finally we just left. I am sure if the owner of the store observed a non-encounter such as this, they would not have been at all pleased.

This is not the first time I’ve witnessed this kind of passive-aggressive behavior from a so called customer service worker, but for the life of me, I just can’t figure out WHY someone who is getting paid to help customers would ever behave this way. It’s possible they don’t want or need the job, perhaps they hate people and are in the wrong business or just maybe they don’t understand what customers feel like when you ignore them.

When you look through people as if they are not even in the establishment, it makes them feel unwelcome, unwanted and disrespected it’s hurtful. Why would you ever want make anyone, let alone a customer feel this way? You are paid to bring customers in the door, not chase them away. There is absolutely no excuse for snubbing clients. If you really hate people this much…get out of the business.

Making customer’s feel welcome really doesn’t take that much effort, it’s a lot like having friends over to your house – you wouldn’t just pretend they weren’t there would you? Of course not! Here’s all it takes:

You’d smile and say ‘Hi’ when people walk in the door.

You’d engage in friendly conversation.

You’d see what you could get for them.

You would make sure that they were comfortable.

When the time came to say good bye you would send them off with a friendly farewell.

See, that’s not so tough…..