On the downside, technology may be affecting our ability to think for ourselves. Recently a good friend of mine who owns a restaurant near us went to Wal-Mart the other day to purchase some sliced turkey for his delicious turkey club sandwich. The deli counter employee was very nice and gave him the pound of sliced turkey he requested. Then being extra caring the deli employee offered to him a coupon for .50 cents off his purchase.

My friend, not really being the coupon type told the helpful individual he didn’t normally use coupons, but this time why not, he had the turkey, he had the coupon so he decided to go for it.

When he wen to check out, the person at the cash register rung him up, took the coupon and then appeared to have run in to a terrible problem:

“Uh Sir”, he said “this coupon is only good if you purchase a full pound of sliced turkey”.
“Okay, and the problem is” asked my friend.
“Well, this turkey says it’s only 99/100s of a pound. So I don’t know if I can use this coupon. Let me call over a manager”.

So my friend patently waited as the manager on duty came to the counter. After explaining the problem, the manager also looking concerned stated that she didn’t know if the coupon could be used either as clearly it said right on the sticker that the turkey was not a full pound. After much debate, while the line started to pile up behind him my friend told them that he would leave them with the “tainted” only 99/100s of a pound turkey package, go back to the deli and get a full pound of turkey so it wouldn’t be so much trouble.

The manager asked why he should not just go get another half a slice or so in this packaged turkey. My question is why didn’t he just tell them if they add the weight of the coupon, then they’d have achieved the all important 16oz.

While this story is somewhat humorous, it is also somewhat sad regarding how non-empowered some employees are in some establishments.  What would have been the terrible retribution for honoring a coupon for a purchase that was clearly 0.16 oz underweight.  Has the technology that weighs digitally the amount of weight down to the 100 percentile given way to the older dial type mechanism and taken away our ability to justify good customer service.  Is it technology that is doing this, or is it just a matter of taking away the ability for employees to think on their own that would cause this to happen.

While it’s good practice to allow employees a little empowerment from a motivation viewpoint, it’s also important from a customer service reference too.  Please, let’s teach our employees what good customer service means rather than giving them a down to the most minuscule detailed can and cant do for the customer list.  Would it break the bank for businesses to care for the customer rather than care for half cents lost on one purchase?

You may even want to consider teaching your employees how to weigh the odds so the interests of the company are met while the customer’s are being taken care of as they should.  The more information your employees know about the true nature of your business, the better decisions that can make for you and your business.