Met some friends for a focus group at a local coffee place. While waiting at the counter for my drink I noticed something new. On the counter where you receive your food & drink a staff had written in green nail polish
“PLEASE don’t place your dishes here!!”
As I read this, I looked around to see where I am supposed to place my dishes. The Bus tubs (the plastic thing that you place your dishes into) are located by the trash cans, and are not easily accessible, many people don’t place their dishes into them.
I asked the woman behind the counter, “How is this working for you?”, with surprise in her eyes she said, “what do you mean?” I responded, “the don’t place your dishes here, is this working?”. She then went into health code violations and all the reasons why people should not place their dishes on the counter.
My response, “Reading this sign I would put my dishes here, all I see is the words, Place your Dishes here, and you do not show me where to place them. The only instruction you have is a problem statement and not a solution.” She said, “Maybe you are just mean and would do something like that!” My response, “Well I would because you are just telling me what NOT to do, instead of what you WANT me to do. Which is place my dishes in that hard to find dirty bus tub over there.” I grabbed my coffee and left.
As I walked away she went to the other woman behind the cash register, whispered something, they looked at me and I heard, “What a JERK!” (not the first time and I am sure it not the last.)
My friends and I sat in the coffee shop for over an hour and a half, I saw;
- 5 people bring their dishes to the bus tub
- 8 groups just leave their dishes on the tables where they were sitting
- and 15 people leave their dishes on the COUNTER! right on top of the “DON’T PLACE YOUR DISHES HERE” marking!
THE PROCESS IS BROKEN.
The woman became upset with me, because she thought that her work is valuable because of a little extra effort, that is totally wasted and NOW you have nail polish that looks very sloppy on the counter and the problem is not fixed. The woman is frustrated and the problem still exists.
Sound familiar? I recommend examining the problem then creating solution statement of the Behaviors you want…
How can this be a solution statement?
- Observe the behavior of people who do what you want them to do, i.e. place dirty dishes in the bus pan. What makes them different, how do they know, what is their walking through the store pattern.
- Place the Bus Tubs in higher traffic areas and create LARGE SIGNS that read “PLACE YOU DISHES HERE”. Creating a solution action step, letting me know what you want to see, as opposed to what you DON”T want to see.
- Create a stand up sign that sits on the counter reading “PLACE DIRTY DISHES IN THE BUS TUB —->” arrow points to bus tub.
- When you hand me my drinks / food say…”when you are done if you could please place the dishes in the bus tubs located at x, y, and z locations I would really appreciate it.
- Create table stands for each table saying something like “YOU ARE AWESOME! PLACE YOUR DISHES IN THE BUS TUBS. Located at X, Y, Z…thank you”
- Make the Bus Tubs a BIG DEAL…more obvious
- Let people in the shop know that you are handing out random coupons and give-aways to people “Spotted” placing their dishes in the Tubs.
- Make the counter space one so that I cannot place my dishes on the counter
Alright…you get the point;
Creating problem statements are important and if you want to change peoples behavior you have to develop solution statements.
michael cardus is create-learning
image by d.loop
I love this. A great illustration of both what NOT to do, and then what to do to get a desired change! Thanks!
Great post! If all businesses thought of the customer needs first and built the process around serving them most effectively the world would be a better place.
Perfect! It is so easy to fix these type of issues. Glad you detailed it out and so sorry she wasn’t open to listening. She could use your help!
People don’t listen when you question them…I tend to come on too strong.
The challenge is that we focus on problems and just tell people “what not to do” as opposed to finding solutions of “what to do”
This requires that employees care…and the challenge I find is that as leaders (and passionate about what we do) realizing that people DONT CARE AS MUCH AS YOU.
and that this is alright. People don’t have to be as passionate as you are…and they still need to feel good about there work.
Challenges of leadership.
Thank you…we need to acknowledge problems then move to finding solutions. Often time we just stop and become frustrated with the problem.
Mike!! This is an excellent post! I would love to hear if Spot Coffee responds to this. Ive had issues of my own at this establishment including one just yesterday morning downtown with a filthy cup! If they want to bring up health regulations, they might want to take a closer look at themselves.
Ok, but that’s besides the point. This is also about customer service, hiring practices and how people on the front lines are trained! As we say in twitter, this is a huge #fail !!
Spot Coffees to be monitoring their brand online. Ive seen many complaints about this company in the last little while. All little blurbs from unhappy customers.
You are right Mike, people dont care. But if you are working for me and representing my company you damn well better care. Because there is always someone else who can do the job and do it better. Its easy enough to pretend to care….then keep your mouth shut about their opinions of customers! Wow!!
Great post Mike!!
thank you Robin…I think that the woman behind the counter cared, she went above and beyond to write on the counter…
It is just that her understanding of the problem created a focus in a negative interaction.
This is like a student who really cares about getting a good grade, and spends 20+ hours writing a paper only to receive a C…Then he goes to the teacher “I spent 20 hours working on this and all i got is a C”…Just because you spend alot of time doing something does not mean it is quality work.
Back to the coffee shop..this woman is trying and does care she has just never had the training and understanding to re-focus customer behavior, by phrasing a solution….all she was able to do was amplify the problem.
Mike,
This is a very relatable post. Thanks for sharing your experience (and, Robin, thank you for promoting the link on your Twitter).
This especially resonated for me as it reminded me a lot of a book I just finished — Hacking Work — which is is all about the rising tide of benevolent hacking and the people who bypass corporate-centered systems in favor of efficient, user-centered approaches.
Frank…
I have not read Hacking work and I will (one of these day right now I have 2 stacks of books that I really want to read infront of me).
The paradox is that corporate-centered systems are established to increase the effectiveness of user-centered interactions.
We fall into a “corporate is bad” mentality sometime too quickly.
Being critical in thinking and wondering “why is this system set this way” creates a user centerd approach.
The corporate Stuff becomes troublesome when too many levels of beurocracy and over-work create a loss in user interface.
thanks for commenting : )
Great post. It’s too bad she chose to shoot the messenger rather than think about your reasonable suggestion for two seconds. It’s probably the #1 reason people don’t even bother sharing good ideas. I wonder if she came around the next day and tried a solution statement.
Travis…
There is also something to be said for the messenger sharing information is a nice way.
Not sure…either way I am happy to you enjoyed the post.
That’s another reason why you should NOT support Spot Coffee!!
From a designer’s perspective, it’s a simple call to action. Most people don’t bother to look, read or try to figure it out. The process should work without any explanation and the fact that it happen multiple times within 2hrs; imagine the number of misdirected patrons in a day.
No wonder their employees are so arrogant and rude…it’s because us regular folk just “dont get it”….ugh (eyes roll)
Matt…
Thank you for the comment, I like how you brought in the design prospective. Had a similar discussion about grocery stores and every step of the experience is created to influence your behavior.
That is why toilet paper is generally kept in the way back corner of the store. Forcing the consumer to walk past many action and food triggers to pick up supplies you need.
This is the challenge with many organizations, purposeful steps in consumer behavior.