Last year I did a fantastic job of mindlessly inhaling food with no regard as to what the grub would do to my physique, brain, or energy.
Case in point. Ice cream.
Every six months, give or take, I hop on an unbridled binge where I indulge in Cold Stone Creamery (CSC). Their product is heavenly.
For Christmas, Michaline Frances Borek, my lovely beautiful daughter purchased Dad a gift card to Cold Stone Creamery good for four or five visits. Yum! 🙂
So, during a snowy frigid winter Syracuse noon hour, I made the slow trek in my icy covered Honda Accord to the nearest CSC to put a dent in Michaline’s gift card and experience what Cold Stone Creamery calls their 10-Minute Vacation®.
This particular Cold Stone Creamery I visited shares space with a Tim Horton’s coffee franchise.
Here’s the convo that ensued after I entered the doors of CSC and made my way, gleefully to the counter:
Me: I’ll have a -Love It- (medium size) Chocolate Devotion please.
Ice Cream Dude (ICD): Coming right up sir!
A Chocolate Devotion is rapture in a cup. They take a scoop of chocolate ice cream and flatten the mound of yumminess on a cold stone. Throw in a brownie, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, then fold and mash it all together. Voila!
I noticed ICD reaching for a jar of peanut butter, about to scoop a few tablespoons to throw into my Chocolate Devotion creation.
Me: Chocolate Devotion doesn’t include peanut butter. Does it?
Speaking to him with my head tilted towards one o’clock. You know, the same look your dog gives you when he’s curious or puzzled by your movements.
ICD: Sorry about that sir, we don’t get many orders for ice cream at this time of the morning.
Me: But it’s 12:40pm.
ICD: Wow, that’s good! Just a little over two hours to go. I can’t wait to get outta here.
It was at this point, in my head, I hear the late great Jimi Hendrix singing “All Along the Watchtower” ♫ There must be some kinda way out of here, Said the joker to the the thief. ♪♫
Me: You sure did put a lot of ice cream in my order. I asked for a LOVE IT (medium at 670 calories.) That looks like a GOTTA HAVE IT (large at 1,000 calories.)
ICD: Well, it’s a GOTTA LOVE IT in a LOVE IT CUP. There ya go!
Gallup says 71% of the workforce in the United States are disengaged from their jobs. Ice Cream Dude resides in this camp.
At that moment, Ice Cream Dude was the face of this franchise. Is ICD a true representation of the leadership of this franchisee? Who knows.
Although the experience wasn’t the best, I gotta GOTTA LOVE IT ice cream out of the ordeal. Including over 300 more calories to boot!
Cold Stone Creamery has such a tasty product, this less than stellar performance by the ICD won’t prevent me from forking over six bucks for another dish of deliciousness, time and time again. I love their product!
Then again, not every business has an offering that’s as irresistible as Cold Stone Creamery.
The difference between competitors usually bottom lines down to who provides the best customer service experience.
What about the people who represent your company? Your brand? Are they showing up in a way that truly represents who you are or want to be?
To be sure, go order an -ice cream- from them and see what the experience is like.
- What did you notice about being a customer?
- Would you, if you were a customer, buy from your company again?
- What will you do to uplevel the skills of your front line employees so your offering is irresistible?
If you’re struggling with these questions, do what I do. Go enjoy a nice dish of ice cream and take what CSC calls a 10-Minute Vacation®. That’s when I get many of my own great ideas. 😉
Thanks to Joel Kramer for the pic.
Icecream in January? Not hot chocolate from next door? The peanut butter thing could be deadly to some, which makes this story even more scary. My son has an allergy to carrots. We’re constantly asking waiters whether a dish has carrots (those suckers can hide themselves quite well.) The answer is almost always an “absolutely not.” Until we say, “good, because he could die.” THEN they check. Guess what 9 times out of 10 they come back and say, sorry, there are carrots.
As leaders it’s vital that we’re explaining WHY engagement matters and then model what it looks like.
Plus, now you’ve got me thinking about icecream for breakfast.
Sorry to hear your son has these food allergies. Must be frustrating.
Model the way, I concur.
Ha ha, you have willpower. Say no to the ice cream!
Truthfully, peanut butter & extra ice cream would have made me go more often. I went to that same place in January (we’re a hearty sort in central New York lol) and got the size I was supposed to get; heck!
Of course, your main point is solid. The employee wasn’t engaged, was basically giving you more than inventory should allow, and almost gave you something you might not have wanted, which could have ended in him throwing the entire thing away if you hadn’t said anything or couldn’t eat it.
I’ve been to that one though and I’ve often wondered how engaged they can actually be. There’s not much for them to do when there aren’t many customers at some point… that’s one of the things you and I were talking about some weeks ago where I said that there are just some jobs and positions where you might try to hire the right person but the circumstances are going to dictate things more than the employee. If the work isn’t really engaging there’s nothing you can do when it comes to hiring the right person.
Still… I’m going there ASAP! 🙂
I think it’s a reflection of management.
For example, take a look at the employees at Wegmans. These folks are fully engaged. At least that’s what I experience.
Wegmans must put their team through a customer service program that’s second to none.