Ten-year-old boy: “Excuse me, can you tell me where you keep the . . .”
Wal-Mart Pharmacist: “I just came here from another store; I don’t work here.”
Ten-year-old boy: “Oh, okay; sorry.”
Wal-Mart Pharmacist: “That’s okay.”
I actually witnessed this conversation Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio as I was purchasing some Sudafed at a Wal-Mart Pharmacy. I don’t think I could have made up a better “story” if I’d wanted to because we typically think that most people try to do a good job when they’re at work. Oh, but that’s right – this pharmacist wasn’t working. What was she – volunteering? I strongly doubt that.
I found it especially ironic that I have quoted Sam Walton several times, including on this site, as saying, “There is only one boss – the customer.” I thought this particular pharmacist must have missed her orientation or something, but, as my husband pointed out, the ten-year old wasn’t her customer or her boss because she didn’t work there!
Do you have employees working for you that have an “I don’t work here” attitude? How would you know? It could be happening right under your nose and you don’t even know it. Just like the store manager was somewhere else when this happened, you, as a dentist or small business owner, cannot be everywhere at all times. Employees are left alone and trusted, expected, to do the right thing. How do you know that they are? Here are some ways you can help ensure your employees treat your customers with respect.
1) Communicate your customer service philosophy regularly – with each employee. Make sure everyone knows how important customer service is to you, and that lapses will not be tolerated. Discuss “new ways” of pleasing the customer regularly at team meetings, and check in with each employee individually. The failure, on this particular day, with this particular employee was merely a complete and total lack of motivation. The pharmacist was obviously disgruntled about something. Perhaps she was called in to work on what was supposed to be her day off. Maybe she had plans. Maybe she’s worked too many hours already this week. A simple “Hello – we really appreciate your being here today” from the store manager might have prevented the poor treatment of that 10-year-old boy.
2) Place “Secret Shopper” calls. Another way of making sure your staff stays on their toes is with “secret shopper” calls. You can have a family member call in and pretend to be a patient, or you can hire a consultant to place the calls for you if you want a lot of feedback on how the call was handled and could be improved. Be careful whom you hire to do these for you though. The companies that I used in the past were easy to identify because they were completely unfamiliar with our area. When I do secret shopper calls, the staff never knows because I’ve been on the other end of the phone and I know what real patients ask and say during a real phone call. So be sure you hire someone who truly knows these things and don’t take their word for it – get references. Better yet, make them do one at no charge and ask the staff if they recognized it.
3) Take customer complaints seriously. Don’t get me wrong here, I am a huge believer in positive thinking. But one downside in trying to always think positively at work is that we tend to want to dismiss customer complaints. We think, “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, we don’t get complaints very often, this is just one negative patient – probably wanting free work. I’ll do whatever is necessary to make the patient happy, but I don’t see a need to address it with my staff – I don’t want them to think I don’t trust them. I want to be positive and upbeat.” The problem with that line of thinking is that if you have one patient who actually took the time to complain about a problem with your staff, you probably have 10 or more patients who didn’t want to be bothered with doing so. Instead, they’re going to another business down the street. Or, worse yet, going nowhere for the help they truly need.
I’ve heard that Sam Walton was an excellent leader and beloved by his employees. I wonder how he would handle this situation. I wonder even more if it would have happened under his watch.
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Posted under Leadership
This post was written by Debra Moorhead, Motivational Speaker, Author, and Coach on October 9, 2006
I also work at Wal-Mart as a pharmacist; I am asked to work at several locations. Each store I go to, I never know to go right or left to get to the pharmacy. One store had the men’s and women’s restrooms reversed, and I walked into the ladies. I can relate to the pharmacist not knowing where something is, while trying to keep from sinking in a pile of Rx’s (and each new place does things a little differently, and things are in different places (even in the pharmacy). I agree the terms she used are in-appropriate, unless she was by herself. She should have referred the child to a pharm.tech or cashier (if she had one). Some stores have the pharmacist run the whole department, and because of state law, cannot leave the pharmacy un-attended without locking it up, and setting an alarm code. She also could have asked him to go ask another person, since she was un-familiar with the store lay-out. Until you’ve worked as a phamacist, don’t condemn them. I’ve worked as one for 29 years, and I remember ONE person actually thanking me for something I did. Read the surveys..Most pharmacists would not go back and do it again, much less recommend it as a way to make a living. Until you’ve worked, and dealt with the public, have Rx bottles thrown at you, been cursed out because the Rx cannot be refilled, or their insurance refuses to pay for their Rx, give the girl a break. I admire her for at least volunteering to go to another store to help out.
Hmmmmmmmmmm, David. That’s an interesting perspective. I know 8 pharmacists personally, and would certainly never want to “condemn them.” Especially since my niece is in pharmacy school right now. I know it’s not easy. I managed my husband’s dental practice for five years and I’ve experienced what you talked about with the cursing – on many occasions.
It makes me sad that you’ve been that miserable for 29 years. I would think that after that long, you could retire and pursue a career that you enjoy.
I have a great deal of respect for my local pharmacists, and am always thanking them for their assistance. I rely on them on their advice. Maybe that’s why they like me so well too! I’ve seen them have hard days, but they would always let a ten-year-old boy, or anyone else for that matter, finish his sentence.
Good luck to you – I wish you ALL THE BEST THIS LIFE HAS TO OFFER.
First, a Wal-Mart pharmacist is probably one of the last persons to know where something is located. A pharmacist that works several different stores is even more likely to not know. Wal-Mart constantly has their employees move things and change things. It may be in one place one day and in another place the next day. Only the people that work the floor, are likely to know much about where anything is located. The pharmacist is busy trying to check and verify prescriptions. And, I can tell you that every Wal-Mart pharmacist is busy and usually very busy. You can talk all you want about what someone should do or you think they should have done, but the bottom line is that there is just so much work to be done that the pharmacist and techs just don’t have much time for anything outside the pharmacy. Second, the work setting for pharmacists and techs with most chains is far from ideal. The pharmacists are doing critical work, trying to get the right med to the right patient in the right strength and to ensure that the medication does not interact with other meds that the patient may be taking. Then, there are the constant, irritating problems of trying to get someones insurance to pay. Phones constantly ringing and a barrage of questions from techs. And, there is the frequent customer, sticking their head in the window while talking in their cellphone in a loud voice, while another customer is at the register ranting about the copay on their medication. All of this is taking place at one time. Do you really think that most pharmacists have time to address that 10 year old boys question? In an ideal world there would be plenty of time to address the kids questions, to chat with customers, and be Mr. Nice Guy. But, I can tell you that this is a dream world and does not exist in the chains. So, you better tell your niece to go into clinical or hospital work, because I doubt she will like a retail chain.
Nope, I’m not buying it. She was not busy. There were no customers there at all. She was sitting there reading a magazine. She was rude. It’s amazing to me how the only comments on this post have been from defensive employees. You missed the point of the article entirely.