Who Do You Service First?

Have you ever had this experience:

You are in a store, any store, large or small, and you are waiting online to check out. The line is getting pretty long. You shift from one foot to the other. Back and forth. As the line…inches…up.

And then, the store phone rings.

And you see one of the few cashiers stop what they are doing to answer the phone.

And you shift from one foot to the other. Back and forth. And the line basically stops moving as the person on the phone gets priority service.

How do you choose who to service when you have competing priorities? If I am the person waiting in line, ready to pay for my items, I would like priority service. After all, I am a “for sure” sale. All they have to do is take my money.

On the other hand, if I have a question, I like to be able to pick up the phone and call the store. Perhaps it will save me a needless trip, if the store does not carry the item I am searching for. If I phone the store, I certainly don’t want to be put on interminable hold.

The same thing is true in non-retail interactions. At work, I have people walk in to my office, call me on my landline phone, call me on my cellphone, text me, Skype me, ping me on instant messenger, send me direct messages via Twitter, chat on Facebook – the list of people and the various ways they can communicate with me is truly endless.

If only I could clone myself. I’d have one “me” answer the phone all day. Another “me” respond to emails. A third “me” would be active on instant messenger. My fourth “me” would be the social media maven.

And the real “me” would go to lunch.

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Val Swisher

Val Swisher is the Founder and CEO of Content Rules, Inc. Val enjoys helping companies solve complex content problems. She is a well-known expert in content strategy, structured authoring, global content, content development, and terminology management. Val believes content should be easy to read, cost-effective to create and translate, and efficient to manage. Her customers include industry giants such as Google, Cisco, Visa, Facebook, Roche, and IBM. Her fourth book, “The Personalization Paradox: Why Companies Fail (and How to Succeed) at Creating Personalized Experiences at Scale,” was published in 2021 by XML Press.

Val is on the Advisory Board for the Technical Communications Program at the University of North Texas. When not working with customers or students, Val can be found sitting behind her sewing machine working on her latest quilt. She also makes a mean hummus.

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