Why don’t we reward positive behavior? A good mother does not reward negative behavior in a child, she ignores it and rewards the positive behavior instead. I’m not advocating punishment for bad behavior, because some people are gluttons for punishment. But why all of the sudden when people become adults do we start rewarding them for causing a scene? I’m not sure if this happens so much in other countries as it does in America, and I highly doubt I can change the way that things work, but if all businesses stopped giving free things to customers who whine about stuff like a child kicking and screaming on the floor of Wal-Mart for candy, I think that we’d have a lot less rude people walking around with an over-inflated sense of entitlement.
Hypothetical situation #1: A lady comes in to a store specifically looking for a product that costs $20. The associate helps her to ascertain the product. Customer complains about price of product, but is assured by associate that this product works well, is worth the price and is so concentrated that it will last a long time. At the register, ANOTHER associate is looking over associate #1s shoulder, says, “Oh, you spent over $20 today (20.95 after tax) that means you’re qualified for a free gift if you sign up for our rewards program.”
Customer, still looking like she had lemons for breakfast, signs up on the Ipad next to the register for rewards program (mind you, this is a new system, kinks are still being worked out). However, she does not receive the text message with the confirmation code for which to account for inventory and get her free $1 bag. So associate #1 tells the customer, “It could just be your carrier, sometimes messages get delayed, I know I myself have sometimes had a message delayed for several hours (insert jovial lightening of the mood small laugh here), just hold onto your receipt here showing that you spent over $20, and when you get the code just come back in and we an give you the bag, I would just give it to you, but we do still count the bags in our inventory, so they must be accounted for. “
Customer says, “Well what if I never get the text?”
Associate #1: “In that case, just give us a call and I can call the store owner and since he’s in charge of the database, I’m sure he can see that your number was put into the system and that should be proof enough to give you the bag.”
Customers hovers around register for a bit. Finally leaves saying, “I’m sure I’ll get the text when I go into Kroger.”
Associate #1: “Okay, that’s fine, like I said, just hold onto your receipt, we’ll be here, have a good day.”
A few days later this customer decides to post an immature public rant on the store’s Facebook page. She says that the associates were rude to her (completely untrue). She is contacted privately and told that the store can mail the bag to her for her convenience, she pitches another fit saying that won’t work for her. In the end, the customer gets the bag mailed to her, a FREE $10 gift from the store AND a coupon for 25% off. Why? Because it would “cost more to advertise to get another customer in the store than to give her these things.”
Hypothetical situation #2: A customer walks into a sub shop and orders a vegetarian sub. The shop is being run by ONE person and has run out of tomatoes due to no fault of the person currently running the shop. The customer complains about there being no tomatoes and is told by the sandwich artist, “We just ran out, there’s actually a sign on the door (which there was) but I can give you extra cheese free of charge if you want.”
This did not work for the customer, he left the store much in a manner as the customer in the first hypothetical situation did. Seemingly not too upset. Actually several other customers were given free drinks and the like that day because they were understanding of the situation. One customer even asked, “Hey could I get a free drink for the inconvenience?” and then laughed and said he was joking to which the sandwich artist replied, “Yes, absolutely, thank you for being so understanding.”
The person who ordered this veggie sub did the same thing that the lady in the previous story did, instead of saying that something was wrong in the store and having the situation remedied there (which the employee would have been more than happy to do) they both decided that they just wanted to be upset and have free things given to them, but did not have the courage to say it to a person’s face. Instead they both went home and hid behind a computer to do so.
There are a couple of small differences though. The second customer was private about it, he sent an e-mail to corporate which was then forwarded to the store. In this e-mail however, he did say that the employee was rude to him which was again untrue. The store manager asked the sandwich artist to explain what happened, upon explanation of the situation, the store manager decided to ignore the e-mail.
So there is an example of negative behavior going unrewarded. However, it seems as though, the MORE of a scene you make the more likely you are to be rewarded. As I said previously though, there’s no way that I can get every business to think like this; to ignore negative behavior, but we can on smaller levels, begin to make a difference. Be the sub shop manager.
Question? Comments? Concerns? Leave them below please.
by, not fur elise 