That's Nice.

I was at the grocery store and had a discounted item in my order. I know I didn't need the toy, but I had picked it up anyway since it was a bargain. As the woman processed my order I noticed that the discounted item did not reflect the reduced price so I pointed it out to her. She glanced at the monitor and replied, "You will have to go to customer service. I'm new and they never showed me how to do anything like that."

I inhaled deeply as she continued on about how it wasn't her problem and I had a dozen thoughts run through my mind. She continued to ramble about something and  I heard her say, "It's not my fault." I looked her directly in the eye and clearly replied, "That's nice!"

At that very moment, I wanted to completely go off the deep end and give her every bit of what I had built up over the past week. It was nobody's fault that my pharmacy didn't have their employee trained last week, but I was patient and walked the young man through the entire process over the phone. It wasn't anybody's fault that a side effect from my new medication was not printed on the insert that I received, but I was understanding of the oversight. It surely wasn't that girl's fault at the drive through window when two drinks were missing from my order and I know that because she told me so.

Somebody is at fault.

At the grocery store, the young lady that was working bagging my order spoke up and said, "It might show the reduced price when the order is totaled. If it doesn't show the markdown I will go over to customer service with you and we will get it fixed." All of my concern and built up frustration was immediately gone. Neither she nor I cared about who was at fault, but as a customer I now had a team!

The woman totaled my order. Sure enough, the reduced price showed up. I pointed it out to the cashier because she didn't notice even though I'm sure she would tell me that it wasn't her fault that she wasn't paying any attention. In a way, I feel guilty about my next action but in a way I don't. It's a fault of mine that I will rethink and reconsider every scenario.

I turned to the woman and said, "You need to listen to this young lady because she knows what she is doing and she is not afraid to take corrective action."

I'm still on the fence about my little comment but, it does occur to me that I could have made a scene to find out exactly who was at fault.

Do you allow your employees to admit fault and take corrective action?

Georgianna Hardware Corporation