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10 September, 2021

Wayne’s World: The tall and the short of customer service

G’DAY Tropicairnsians,

By Wayne Marshall

Wayne’s World: The tall and the short of customer service - feature photo

Woke up at 3am last Saturday morning with a thought going through that vast empty space between my ears.  Why I am doing what I do at the big green box, I was confused?

Join my world, well what I am going to ramble on about this time is something that I feel very strongly about and the real reason why I am in retail. Customer Service!

  There I am, before the birds were waking, sitting in front of my computer slurping away at my first cup of tar, challenging this internal peanut to word form at this crazy hour and unbelievably, things start to happen.

Now a lot of people ask why I gave away my good paying trade as a Boilermaker/Welder after 35 years and the main answer was because after all the injuries, diseases, stress, remote mine lifestyle and the last nail in the coffin was when they put in a pacemaker at the ripe old age of 50, well that there is a
good reason.

Now, I was not always in the trade as my life journeys took me in many various directions, skyscraper window cleaner, sales, truck driver, laborer for many different trades and so many more other opportunities.

So of course, that medical problem started a new direction in my life, a very dear friend suggested to me that with my hands, skills and always thinking creatively, that starting a handyman business would be the right move and challenge for me. And by golly she was right. For a while I was like a kid in a lolly shop, completely happy with my lot in life.

 Then they started building the new big green box in town and it was pointed out to me about my view on customer service in Cairns, now to be honest, here in the tropics, no one gave a crap about retail.

I mean Cairns really sucked in this field as there seemed to be a ridiculously small minority of people or businesses that gave good customer service.

So, I was told to put my money where my mouth was and prove that I could consistently deliver good, happy, and honest service to even the most challenging people like home renovators and tradies.

So, I threw my hat in the ring and joined about 2500 others in jostling to grab a position and to tell the truth this was not an easy feat that took around 3 months to secure a red shirt. 

 I am not saying this has been an easy transition from being a tradie to retail assistant and part of a huge corporation, quite the opposite, in six and a half years here I have stood on many fellow team members and management toes to achieve my idea of what customers should expect from us when they are spending their money.

 As I tell others, is it really that hard to smile, be polite and enjoy your job as you did on your first day on the floor and I have proven, day in day out that 98% of the customers will show appreciation for good service.

 A good example of loving your job, goes to Kmart and watch that man mountain and gentle giant Travis conduct himself at his post, hour after hour cheerfully greeting people and exit controlling bags with pure contentment and professionalism.

 Retail would be perfect if we had more Travis’s.

 

Wayne.

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