One more local to global thought, because I’m still thinking about the clerk at the post office, beyond his cameras-are-pictures line.
We’re going to overlook that. Not because I’ll ever get it out of my head, but because even with that coming out of his mouth, he handled his job in a way worth mentioning.
Whoever you do business with, especially when there’s a problem or a question, is the company in that moment.
And the whole value of the brand gets reduced to that one person, in those moments, which makes people a very big deal.
When I was at a massive company, I used to explain (half as a joke, but I honestly didn’t mean it as one) that our job was like working the paint counter at financial Walmart. Our clients came to us for one specific purpose in an otherwise giant superstore, and we had to remember we were one subsection of this behemoth.
How we treated not just our clients, but anybody who stopped by our counter would shade their entire experience of the brand.
Just because our job had nothing to do with 97% of the store didn’t change the fact that we were a part of the store.
Now, we’ve all been in that superstore. The one where you ask a question and get the “I don’t really know and don’t really care” shrug. Or worse, you can’t find a person to ask, and you feel the lost-in-the-aisles dread setting in as you realize the employees are avoiding you because you have that “I have a problem and need help” face.
So after introducing the financial Walmart paint counter metaphor, my reminder to colleagues was straightforward. Yes, we have our job and our area of expertise. But if someone asks where the toilet paper is, we help them figure it out, even though it isn’t our job.
Being helpful in that superstore means people remember we’re the good guys. They’ll come back to do business with the brand, because they’ll come back to do business with us.
And maybe that’s where the paint counter metaphor breaks down a little, but the idea is true.
The clerk at the post office did the same thing that day, and not just with us. I’m thinking of the guy ahead of us in line sorting out his money order situation while we waited. The clerk listened, was empathetic, and was honest that he didn’t have the answer. Then he offered the best next step he had.
Just because it’s not your problem to solve doesn’t mean there’s no value in trying to help, especially when you know your brand has the answer somewhere.
Even if somewhere is “all the way up.”
That person at that counter is the brand. It’s where trust comes from, and that can be a real source of pride in any job worth doing.
