Which face are you wearing?

Some years later in my Customer Service life, as the Regional Photo Manager for CVS Pharmacy, we had a situation that didn’t make much sense.

The customer said she had turned in two rolls of film in the morning to have them developed.  When she returned in the afternoon, she was told by the Photo Technician that they were not yet printed since the printer machine had been down all day.  The customer then asked why she wasn’t told this when she dropped the rolls off?  

At this point an argument ensued, she asked to speak to the Manager and the argument then continued.  Finally, she said, “Just give me the negatives, I’ll get them printed somewhere else.”  

The complaint I received was from 2 days later when she returned to the store and said, “You gave me two empty film containers, my negatives are not there!  I want my negatives right now or I’m going to sue you!”

After a cursory examination around the Photo Department, the Assistant Manager had told the customer, “We don’t have your negatives, sorry.”  This is when the customer went ballistic and called the corporate office. 

I gave the customer a call and she said, “Will you meet me at the store Monday at 5PM?”  I said of course.  She told me the photos were of her best friend who had flown out to California for a visit and lived in the East.  They hadn’t seen each other in 20 years.  

On Monday, I arrived early and met with the Store Manager to make sure we had all our facts straight.  He and I reviewed the store security film to see if we could spot anything that had transpired, no luck.

When the customer arrived, we reviewed the video with her and at the critical point she said:  

“Here is where I asked him why he didn’t tell me that his machine was broken when I dropped off the film.”

“And here is where he told me he did!”

The minute she said this we had an important part of the answer.  I then asked her for the two envelopes she was clutching and as I opened the containers and pulled out the negatives, she gasped, looked at me and said, “I’m so embarrassed!  Please forgive me for causing this entire problem.”  I was so happy that now we could solve the problem.

Frequently the negatives look like they are missing because they are black, as is the container.  We made her a photo book for free as a gift along with her prints and she was delighted!

After she left, I asked the Manager if he saw what had happened, why she had gotten so angry.  He said, “It’s because she thought we lost her film wasn’t it?”  

“No, it’s because when she told our clerk ‘You should have told me your machine was broken’, he said ‘I did’.”  Just about the worst answer possible!  

You see, the one thing I couldn’t see on the video was the face on the associate, his back was to the camera, but I’ll bet you it wasn’t a sympathetic face but rather an “I told you so” face and that is why we instantly became the enemy.

The Essential Lesson:   Which face are you wearing?  (We all have both)

• The wonderful warm smiling face 

Or The

• “I’m busy, just leave me alone” also known as “The I hate my job face!”

We always see the face on the “other” person, not our own.  What face would you see if the camera was recording you?