It sometimes amazes me how our attitude can change based on the attitudes of those around us. Here's an example.
I was in a decent mood this afternoon. I was not having a spectacular day, but not a bad day either, just kind of right down the middle. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work, and impulsively decided to buy some deli meat. I waited behind the three other people at the counter, and the two clerks behind the deli counter were moving along kind of slowly.
Clerk 1: "You said a pound and a half, right? A pound and a half?"
Annoyed female customer: "Just ONE pound."
Clerk 1 (with a slight snotty twinge in her voice): "Oh, sorry."
Clerk 1 continued slicing up the meat, but was moving v-e-r-y slowly. The woman waiting looked very annoyed. As I watched the clerk move oh so slowly, and as I looked at the annoyed woman waiting, I couldn't help but notice that I was suddenly not in a very good mood anymore. I felt slightly annoyed myself, even though I hadn't even made it to the counter yet. I immediately smiled, for no reason, and made myself look happy just so as not to continue the feeling of being annoyed.
Clerk 2: "Can I help you?"
Male customer: "I'd just like a couple of hot dogs."
Clerk 2 (as she's turning to walk away): "The Hoffmans?"
Customer: "Yeah."
Clerk 1 to female customer: "Anything else?"
Annoyed female customer: "A pound of the [something or other] Swiss cheese."
Clerk 1 ambled back over to the cheese section of the counter.
Clerk 2:" Here you go."
Male customer: "Thanks." He looked like he was in a little bit of a hurry and left quickly.
Clerk 2: "Can I help you?"
Me: "I'd like a quarter pound of the ham and a quarter pound of the turkey, please."
Clerk 2 picked up the package of ham from the counter and walked (slowly) to the slicer. "You said a half pound?"
Me: "Quarter pound, please." I began to wonder if it was in their training to upsell the customer by offering more than what was originally requested.
Clerk 2 finished slicing both the ham and the turkey, I smiled, thanked her and turned to leave the counter. Clerk 1 was still slicing cheese, and the annoyed female customer looked as annoyed as ever. I smiled politely at her.
As I walked away, I remembered when I was in retail. I never worked in a grocery store, but I worked in other retail stores and I would sometimes go along with my husband when he stocked beer in grocery stores. Truth be known, I pretty much hated retail. It had it's moments of goodness and some of the jobs I had gave me pretty cool perks, but I am not cut out to work in retail the rest of my life. I tried my best not to be the cranky clerk that no one wants to go to. And a lot of days, I managed to stay in a pretty good mood when talking with the customers. But, boy-oh-boy, when you get that one really nasty customer, it's tough to keep that smile on your face.
There's a saying I heard when I first started working in radio. Never let the listener know what kind of day you're having. No matter what, the listeners have to think that today is your best day ever. That I, as the announcer, am in the best mood I've ever been in. I think that kind of principal can be applied to retail, and really to just about any situation. Just because I'm having a crappy day doesn't mean that I should impose my bad mood on the rest of the world.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's really hard to cover up the fact that you're in a lousy mood. And I don't think that any of us expect anyone else to be in a super-fantastic mood 100% of the time. But generally speaking, I think it's a pretty good rule to follow to let everyone believe that you're having a good day, whether you are or not. If you can lighten up your bad mood just enough to smile at someone else, you never know- maybe you cheered them up. And hopefully they will smile back, and cheer you up too. We all have the power to share the AHA in the littlest things. Like smiling at others.
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