Absolutely; failure to have a *store as stage* philosophy is as crazy as a book store telling employees that they are not only not supposed to be talking to each other but they should not be looking over books or reading dust jackets during working hours.

Oh - but wait - that actually IS the case at a Books-A-Million in suburban DC. Although I'd be encouraging employees to chat about fascinating books they are coming across in the store, thus perhaps engaging customers as well, this store threatens dismissal for such things as reading the dust jacket.

Straightening, organizing and dusting? Yes. Finding out what the book is about? No.

Allegedly corporate policy, my hope is that this is just a misguided manager of a low producing store in need of some good advice.

Paul,

Excellent reminder. I wrote a post a couple of days ago about "leaking internal speak" so I think we are on the same wavelength. I think that looking around your store with fresh eyes (or even some common sense) can be very valuable.

Why we are on the topic of not mixing the customer experience with the-man-behind-the-curtain internal mechanics, can we also put out a general reminder for sales associates who are out on the floor with customers that some “private” conversations about friends, the economics teacher with the lovely dead tooth/unibrow combination and who’s “hot” and who’s “not” are better suited for the break room or twitter?

Thanks for the post.

I completely agree but i do have to say that seeing that is better than seeing the manager a sleep on one of the tables in Quizno's. My wife and I walked in and right there to our right was the manager sleeping. I couldn't believe it. I wish i had my camera that day so i could have blogged about it and given everyone visual. Anyways, i agree that those types of things shouldn't be out for customers to see, however there are always worse things a customer can see. Ha!

I completely agree but i do have to say that seeing that is better than seeing the manager a sleep on one of the tables in Quizno's. My wife and I walked in and right there to our right was the manager sleeping. I couldn't believe it. I wish i had my camera that day so i could have blogged about it and given everyone visual. Anyways, i agree that those types of things shouldn't be out for customers to see, however there are always worse things a customer can see. Ha!

I agree that whenever you work with the public or are in full-view of the public (even in an office) that you need to be mindful of not only what you post that may be seen by the public but also what you say and wear. And that goes for sweatpants, nose rings, tatoo and "kudos" to your employees that they "upsold" someone in the public to reach a goal. Customer service is not what it used to be in many places anymore and unfortunately, as consumers ourselves, we've allowed these changes to take place.

I'm going to buck the trend here. While I can understand the direction behind the posting, my first take on the text in question was, "They did something 12.37% more right in April." I realize that there's a certain degree of luck that figures into this 12.37%, but if they weren't 12.37% more friendly, efficient, or (insert quality here), they wouldn't have gotten that award.

There's a McDonald's in the central part of Michigan that has a plaque proudly displayed in its drive-through window that was an award for the most customers ever served inside of a given hour...ever (either nationally or globally - my memory is fuzzy on it). How they did it, I have no idea, because this McDonald's is REALLY out in the sticks. Nowhere even remotely near any cities of any size. Should they display it? In my opinion, yes. You know how irritating it is to sit in line forever in the drive-through just waiting for your McFrosty with chicken finger/sticks/planks/(fill in oddball food noun). What's your reaction if you knew that if you went to this McD's, that you'd get in and out and on your way fast? For me, it'd be a sigh of relief.

I guess I feel like if I see something like that, I'll feel (to a certain degree) reassured that their manager has a commitment to improvement.

On the other side of the coin, I totally agree with the perspective of keeping internal speak and internal concerns where they belong. Behind the counter/closed doors. In a rare moment of righteous anger, I tore a restaurant manager's head off (in private...I tracked him down while he was having a smoke) for basically calling an ad hoc staff meeting in the middle of the restaurant and ripping into his employees for their various transgressions. No one was safe. The guy pretty much went right down the line with each person and told them exactly what was wrong with them in front of the restaurant's patrons, using pretty awful language in the process in front of some parents and their young children.

Anyway, just a few marginally related thoughts. Good post. Thanks for bringing it out!

Susan - that's as bad as Starbucks saying you can't drink the coffee. Poor employees.

Bill - I hear you... wishing you didn't hear them. This is why I *love* the Disney on-stage/back-stage language. It's difficult when you're 18 or so NOT to chitty-chat with your friends at work... BUT there is a time and a place... back-stage.

What's nice is this rule is practical. Management knows you need *your* time at work. Management knows you have a lot going on... But that's not for the customer areas. Back-stage!

Anthony - You've hit real close to one of my biggest pet peeves... I don't want to see the person who is about to prepare my food taking a smoke break behind the building... What's worse is that very person going pee after his smoke break and *not* washing his hands!

well i believe that there are two sides of this "sales awards" thing. there are indeed sales awards that are not for the customer area but there are some that are made exactly for that purpose.

your restaurant example definitely may be viewed negatively by customers but the same award can be made in such a way that encourages more positive (like more sales) outcome. i think you could think of ways to remind your sales people (while in the customer area) to push for a certain item. one way of doing this could be putting up advertising of the items you want to push. an example for a steak house pushing for high-yielding red wine could be a picture of a steak and a glass of red wine, with the words encouraging the customers that the red wine goes really well with steaks.

the same way, we could make a sales award a selling tool instead of just a motivating element for the sales team. i'm sure you could re-phrase the "Store Number 8888 has achieved a 12.37% sales increase for the month of April 2007" into a selling tool as well. im not very good at this but i think you can cite an example or two...

yes there is a place and time for everything and there is something (appropriate) for every place and every time.