Have you noticed people in service positions no longer say, “Thank you”? I have. Instead, listen carefully. You will only hear, “Have a nice day!” One day, I had a cashier mumble to me, “Hav uh” and that was it! Wait, what?!? I would rather she had not said anything! My personal bias is they are intentionally avoiding saying, “Thank you!”
Chick-fil-A is leading the competition by cornering the customer service (i.e., politeness) market. Why? Because turns out, being polite is good for business.
What is being polite? Well, it really boils down to good, solid customer service. Countless books, organizational development studies and articles in the ASQ Quality Progress journal and elsewhere have been published about this subject. For example, one such book title is “The Customer is King”. We have all heard the saying, “The customer is always right.” I do not necessarily agree with this because on some occasions the customer has been known to be wrong. However, that is not the intent of the tried-and-true adage. What it means, of course, is “Treat customers as if they are always right”. In other words, “Customers are #1”.
