I was in Whitecourt, AB today on a work trip. The "downtown" Subway had a problem with the women's restroom, and even had an "Out of Order" sign posted on the door. As I sat at a near-by table writing out the evaluation report, I amused myself listening to the customers repeatedly ask the staff if the restroom was working. The "out of order" sign wasn't small or hard to see by any means. It was written in English, so there was no language barrier to deal with. Hats off to the staff, they politely told the customers they could use the men's room until the women's was functional again, as opposed to several of the snappy responses they could’ve used.
Those of us who work in the customer service industry know that people, in general, do not read posted signs. You can put signs on the front door, the point of order, and in front of the till indicating the debit/credit machine is down so we can only accept cash and you will still get people who hand you their card. Not just one or two people. No, 60%-70% of them will try to pay with plastic. Then they get mad because "you should've put up a sign or something", at which point I will call their attention to the all posted signs they had to walk past, and I'll do it with a smile. Then the guy behind him will usually try to casually put his card back in his wallet without looking like an idiot.
There’s something about an “out of order” sign that makes people want to test it for themselves to see if the condition has somehow resolved itself since the sign was put up. Put the sign on a fountain pop machine, and sure enough someone will walk away with pop on their hands because they just had to try it. It's a fun game really...
Oh, I forgot to mention a few minor details about this afternoon's experience. The whole time these customers couldn't figure out the operational state of the restroom, the plumber was walking in and out while carrying various tools. When he wasn't going to and from his truck, he was in the restroom using a power snake (sounded like he was drilling through the tiles). The floor in the hallway was covered in water, which was coming from the restroom and there was a nice yellow wet floor stand near the hallway entrance. All that, and people still were asking if the restroom was working. What does it take for people to clue in?
Only in an industrialized society can people get away with this level of inattention. Think about it, if our agrarian ancestors had missed the blatantly obvious clues that the bridge was damaged or there was a predator in the area, natural selection would've quickly taken its course and the stupidity gene would be gradually worked out of the pool. Instead, our society thinks it's somehow rude to tell people they don't have the intelligence of a twenty pound sack of potatoes.
Those of us who work in the customer service industry know that people, in general, do not read posted signs. You can put signs on the front door, the point of order, and in front of the till indicating the debit/credit machine is down so we can only accept cash and you will still get people who hand you their card. Not just one or two people. No, 60%-70% of them will try to pay with plastic. Then they get mad because "you should've put up a sign or something", at which point I will call their attention to the all posted signs they had to walk past, and I'll do it with a smile. Then the guy behind him will usually try to casually put his card back in his wallet without looking like an idiot.
There’s something about an “out of order” sign that makes people want to test it for themselves to see if the condition has somehow resolved itself since the sign was put up. Put the sign on a fountain pop machine, and sure enough someone will walk away with pop on their hands because they just had to try it. It's a fun game really...
Oh, I forgot to mention a few minor details about this afternoon's experience. The whole time these customers couldn't figure out the operational state of the restroom, the plumber was walking in and out while carrying various tools. When he wasn't going to and from his truck, he was in the restroom using a power snake (sounded like he was drilling through the tiles). The floor in the hallway was covered in water, which was coming from the restroom and there was a nice yellow wet floor stand near the hallway entrance. All that, and people still were asking if the restroom was working. What does it take for people to clue in?
Only in an industrialized society can people get away with this level of inattention. Think about it, if our agrarian ancestors had missed the blatantly obvious clues that the bridge was damaged or there was a predator in the area, natural selection would've quickly taken its course and the stupidity gene would be gradually worked out of the pool. Instead, our society thinks it's somehow rude to tell people they don't have the intelligence of a twenty pound sack of potatoes.
