My Most Difficult Customer

A huge turning point for me was the day I was walking across my store and spotted the most difficult customer I ever had.  His name was Mr. Walls and every time he came into the store, we had a major nightmare on our hands.  He would start yelling at the employees in the Pharmacy and before long he was up front yelling at my cashiers if there was even one customer in front of him with one item and they didn’t call another checker immediately!  

This went on time after time until one day I happened to be walking the floor and there he was right in front of me.  I don’t remember why, I think I was angry about something else already, but I stopped him and looked him right in the eye and said, “Mr. Walls, how come you are always so mean to everyone?”  

He looked at me and said, “What do you mean?”  

“What do I mean?  Every time you come into our store you start in the Pharmacy, yelling at my employees, and then you move up front and start yelling at my cashiers!  That’s what I mean.  No matter what we do, you are always angry, and you take it out on my employees!”  

At this point, I stopped and realized that I had just yelled at this most difficult customer and that I was probably going to get clobbered so before he could respond, almost instinctively, I added, “We must not be doing a very good job of taking care of you Mr. Walls.  We come in early and we work late here to make our customers happy Mr. Walls, but I just don’t think we are doing our jobs well enough.”  

He looked at me and said, “What are you going to do about it?” 

I thought for a moment and then I said, “After you leave today Mr. Walls, I’m going back to speak with my Pharmacy Team.  I’m going to ask them who is their most difficult customer…I’m sure they will tell me it’s you Mr. Walls.  Then I’m going to ask them what they think is the reason that you get upset.  I’m quite sure they will tell me that sometimes when you come in, your refill isn’t ready as promised.  After they tell me this, I’m going to challenge them to make your refill call a 911 from now on.”  

At this point Mr. Wall’s eyes began to open wider with a look of suspicion and disbelief tinged with just a bit of hope.  

I continued, “Whenever you call in a refill, they will stop what they are doing and fill your prescription next, period.   

Finally Mr. Walls, from now on whenever you come into our store, I’m going to teach all of my associates that they need to let me know right away so that when you are done shopping I’ll be waiting to ring you up personally in the Photo department.  If it’s my day off, I’ll tell my Assistant Managers and Supervisors that they had better be waiting for you and that they better take care of you just as if I was there.”  

He asked me, “Why are you going to do that?”

The answer was easy.

“Because Mr. Walls, I want you to be a happy customer, and I’m going to make it my personal mission to make sure we do our very best every time when it comes to taking care of you.” 

This was the day my personal commitment to the service of My Customers finally became clear to me.

Change doesn’t come easy, but over the coming months, every time Mr. Walls hit the door, his prescriptions were ready, and I was there waiting with a smile to check him out.  

I also reminded all the rest of my staff that Mr. Walls was a test for us, and that all of us had to focus on delivering much more than Mr. Walls expected.  In the past, he had expected to be disappointed, and he usually was.  

My favorite moment was when our Pharmacy Clerk Nancy decided to bake Mr. Walls a birthday cake.  She took him upstairs, gave him a Sav-on vest and badge and made him an honorary employee.  He cried like a baby and so did everyone else.

I really didn’t even start to understand what had happened until many months later.  That was when I found out that Mr. Wall’s wife Winnie, who had been bed-ridden for 10 years and was the sole focus of Mr. Wall’s life, had died soon before my encounter with him.  She had been his life’s partner, and now she was gone, and he was alone.

When I found this out, I finally began to understand why he was always so angry.  His wife was gone, the world had changed, the kids today play their darn music so loud, and it doesn’t sound like music anyways, most of his friends and family were also gone. When he gets up in the morning, he must take all these darn  pills and on and on.  

When you are one of the last left standing from your generation, it can become a very lonely life. 

I’ll never forget Mr. Walls.

The Essential Lesson:  When the customer is Angry…stop what you are doing and WAKE UP!  This is a 911 situation that can be handled, but only if it’s handled with sincerity and RIGHT NOW!