Friday, May 8, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
What is it about airports?
Recent events brought me to question myself why is it that i insist on dropping people off and picking people up at airports. I mean, you can see the planes taking off and landing, which was the initial charm of airports and at some point in my life it was my family's favorite pastime.
But I started thinking about it more and it wasn't until I recently went to one that I realized what it was: It goes way beyond the fact that you can watch the planes and that I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. It's all about the people.
I love, LOVE to observe people. I sit on benches in park just to do that. I love to eavesdrop and hear the conversations they have. I love to watch their face expressions, the way they talk, their gestures, etc.... I especially love to pick people up at the airport because you can observe people waiting for their loved ones, or their friends, or their customers, etc. I observe people when they are waiting, some bring their newspapers and books and read, other bring their families and friends and engage in different type of activities: playing with the baggage carts, buying food or balloons, talk loudly about all kinds of subjects; there are some that start to run out of patience and begin to sigh, and walk from one place to the other, and there are others who play or talk with and on their cellphones.
But the height of the moment is when the expected person finally arrives: their faces light up and they smile and run towards them and they hug or shake their hands. It's a happy moment. it's always a happy moment, either because you are having a close encounter with somebody you care about or because your wait is over.
But I started thinking about it more and it wasn't until I recently went to one that I realized what it was: It goes way beyond the fact that you can watch the planes and that I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. It's all about the people.
I love, LOVE to observe people. I sit on benches in park just to do that. I love to eavesdrop and hear the conversations they have. I love to watch their face expressions, the way they talk, their gestures, etc.... I especially love to pick people up at the airport because you can observe people waiting for their loved ones, or their friends, or their customers, etc. I observe people when they are waiting, some bring their newspapers and books and read, other bring their families and friends and engage in different type of activities: playing with the baggage carts, buying food or balloons, talk loudly about all kinds of subjects; there are some that start to run out of patience and begin to sigh, and walk from one place to the other, and there are others who play or talk with and on their cellphones.
But the height of the moment is when the expected person finally arrives: their faces light up and they smile and run towards them and they hug or shake their hands. It's a happy moment. it's always a happy moment, either because you are having a close encounter with somebody you care about or because your wait is over.
Friday, May 1, 2009
What's up with that?
So today I went to a home supplies store because I needed to get -you guessed it- some home supplies.
As I was walking my way inside the store and trying to find the stuff I needed, I found EVERY employee saying "hello". And I mean EVERY employee. And that store has a lot of employees. There are like three per section: Kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies, closet supplies, bedding, etc.
At the beginning I thought "Oh! they're friendly" but then it kind of freaked me out to the point that I wanted to scream "Stop it!!". They were so repetitive and so automated that they seemed like they were machines instead of people.
The funny thing is, you may think that they greet you just to make you feel like you are being taking care of, meanwhile, when I went to ask a question, they ignored me at first and then they made me feel like stupid for pointing out the obvious (OK, I did make a stupid question, but that's not my point).
There was only ONE person that seem to be truly honest and helpful (I say honest because he actually asked me "do you need any help?" as opposed to saying "hello"). He actually meant what he said and was very attentive. He even suggested a much cheaper item than the one I was intending to buy.
Please people, do not allow the store system to make you act as a machine, instead focus on some real customer service. Maybe they should just pay more attention to how small store owners run their businesses.
As I was walking my way inside the store and trying to find the stuff I needed, I found EVERY employee saying "hello". And I mean EVERY employee. And that store has a lot of employees. There are like three per section: Kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies, closet supplies, bedding, etc.
At the beginning I thought "Oh! they're friendly" but then it kind of freaked me out to the point that I wanted to scream "Stop it!!". They were so repetitive and so automated that they seemed like they were machines instead of people.
The funny thing is, you may think that they greet you just to make you feel like you are being taking care of, meanwhile, when I went to ask a question, they ignored me at first and then they made me feel like stupid for pointing out the obvious (OK, I did make a stupid question, but that's not my point).
There was only ONE person that seem to be truly honest and helpful (I say honest because he actually asked me "do you need any help?" as opposed to saying "hello"). He actually meant what he said and was very attentive. He even suggested a much cheaper item than the one I was intending to buy.
Please people, do not allow the store system to make you act as a machine, instead focus on some real customer service. Maybe they should just pay more attention to how small store owners run their businesses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
