What’s Your Pickle?
1 Peter 4:9-10
NKJV
9 Be hospitable
to one another without grumbling.
10 As each
one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the
manifold grace of God.
Bob Farrell is a
motivational speaker who talks about customer service. He owned a chain of Ice Cream shops that sold
ice cream as well as hamburgers with a side of pickles. Early in his career, he
received a letter telling how great his food was but when the customer asked
for an extra pickle the waitress tried to sell it to him. He told Mr. Farrell he would never eat in his
shop again. Mr. Farrell called his staff
together and told them the story and told them that, no matter what, serve the
customer! Their battle cry became, “Give
them the pickle!” He talks to groups
about how they can improve their customer service by finding what their pickle
is and then, “Give them the pickle!”
He tells the
story of a garbage truck driver who stops if he sees people having trouble
starting a lawn mower and starts their mower for them. That service is the pickle he gives
away. He tells banks to stop chaining
their pens to the wall and give pens away with their name and logo printed on
them. That becomes their pickle.
I work in a
public library, so we are all about customer service. What else would we be there for? So we try to make people feel welcome and
help them do whatever it is they are there to do. In the past few weeks I’ve helped three
people fill out work applications and one create a resume. Three people with
Kindles needed help downloading eBooks and at least five people had trouble
logging onto our WiFi service. None of
these is in my job description, but these people need help and it was something
I can help with so this is the pickle I give away.
Giving away the
pickle is the basis of any job, whether customer service oriented or not. I learned from my oldest brother a long time
ago to do what your boss wants done and more.
Don’t stop at just getting the job done, see what has to be done and
jump in and help. This has been great
advice and some 39 years later it’s still one of the best pieces of advice I
ever got.
I have been the
victim of lousy customer service on many occasions. There are people who only do the minimum to
serve you and nothing more. “Go the
extra mile,” Jesus tells us, but these stingy workers won’t go the extra
millimeter. My favorite experiences were
the young lady in McDonalds who tried to charge me 15c for an extra dipping
sauce. She was more willing to lose a
$5.00 order than to give me one extra sauce.
Then there was the Subway employee who gave me one, count ‘em, one
napkin. I asked for an extra but was
told how expensive paper products were.
Ever try to eat a meatball sub with one napkin?
But the worst customer
service I have ever gotten was in churches.
We need to understand that it’s not that a new visitor is blessed to
come into your wonderful church this morning; but it’s that you’re blessed to
have this wonderful visitor come into your church this morning. A church we used to attend has a wonderful
usher staff, and our first Sunday there we were greeted and shown to a
seat. They made us feel welcome and gave
us a visitor pack. But when I asked
where the ladies room was for my wife, they told me, “back past the
nursery.” When we walked to the other
end of the lobby and entered through the doorway we found another whole
building back there. We found the rest
rooms eventually. Too bad the usher
didn’t walk us back there.
Another church
we visited some years back advertised, right on the front page of the bulletin,
“new visitors come and meet the Pastor after service in room 23.” So after
service we found room 23, filled with kids wolfing down the cookies and punch,
and no Pastor. Several minutes later a
harried usher rushed in and shook our hands and told us the Pastor had “a lunch
appointment,” thanked us for coming and immediately left. Another church had a greeting time right
after the opening prayer and I stepped out into the aisle where not one person
greeted us. There were perhaps 250 and
300 people in attendance and not one greeted us.
If I can go into
a fast food joint and get called “Sir” and have people look at me when they
talk to me and get my order right and thank me for eating there, why can’t I go
to church and get greeted and have someone look me in the eye when they talk to
me and tell me how much they appreciate my being in service that day? When the ushers pass the offering plate, can
I get a smile? When the Pastor says he’s
glad to see so many visitors, would it be too much to expect him to greet them
after service? If your rest rooms are at
the other end of the building, don’t expect the visitors to know where it is
unless you pass out floor plans at the door.
Simple courtesy
will go a long way to making a visitor feel welcome in your church. A restaurant with bad customer service loses
business. A church with bad “customer
service” loses souls.
When a question
of what to do come to your mind:
First, say to yourself (about the visitor,) “I like you
and I’m glad you came this morning.” This
will help you with your smile.
Second, ask, “what can I do for you?”
Third, give them a visitor packet that tells about your
church.
And fourth, look at them as a soul on the brink of
eternity. You might be the only face of
Jesus they will see. Imagine getting to
heaven and finding out this person is in hell because they went to church once
and everyone ignored them.
Stephen Cram May 26,
2013
Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition
of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with
Christ. Colossians 2:8
