We read a complaint this week on a largely populated local Facebook group about a negative experience someone had encountered in a well-known, reputable food store in Brighton. She complained that for three days in a row, the same man had served her and “could not be bothered to smile, let alone be nice”. She said that the reason seemed beyond simply ‘having a bad day’, and as a result, she had decided she no longer wanted to shop there, because, well why should she?!

The responses she got from the group members were a very mixed bag and sparked a fair amount of debate. Half of the responses were of the essence of; why should he? Are you paying for the food produce or a smile? Why should he force a smile if he doesn’t mean it? Did you even try to talk to him yourself?

The other half of the group were of the opinion that this is simply customer service and that a smile and some niceties are expected and are actually part of your service, some even quoting that certain banks include smiling in their training programmes.

It did get us thinking! This person didn’t necessarily receive bad customer service; she was served quickly, got what she needed and from what we could tell, the transaction was smooth. She also didn’t receive particularly good customer service; she was not offered any help and no-one went out of their way for her. She received neutral customer service, and yet she decided she no longer wanted to shop there, based on this reason alone.

We think the problem here was employee engagement. It sounds as though this employee was not engaged with his job that week and this became very apparent by the third visit from that customer. She gave him the benefit of the doubt on the first and second visit even though she felt she hadn’t had the experience she desired, but by day 3 she realised that this was an ongoing problem. He wasn’t coming across to customers as happy, inspired, engaged or motivated.

His apparent sense of unhappiness and disinterest made this customer feel as though the brand was also unhappy and disinterested and therefore, why should she give the brand her hard-earned cash? This is a real example of how much of your brand values are portrayed in your front-line customer service staff.

They represent your brand, your ethos and your voice. If your employees don’t reek of your brand values – your customers can’t experience them! You can’t rely on a snazzy font and some wicked brand colours to give customers a sense of your brand – only the customer experience can portray that and in many businesses, a lot of that is down to your employees.

In a world where we are used to dealing with machines, automated processes and recorded phone lines, we value the human interaction more than ever when things go wrong! Humans can make decisions which machines can’t, and can quickly turn a negative experience into something positive and warming.

Firstly, we really hope this complainee let the brand know about this encounter so they had a chance to put things right. There is a lesson to be learnt here though – in a service-led world, your front-line employees are representing you as a brand and providing an experience for your customers. Disengaged employees are not going to be in the best place to provide a positive customer experience. If they have lost motivation, inspiration, willingness or drive – this will come across to your customers and it will be a reflection of your brand.

Don’t let this happen! Speak with Richard at Brightstone about implementing an employee engagement program and make sure your employees reflect your brand in the way they should!