Training the Customer

Written By: Paul Rhodes | I went through the Transportation Security Administration gauntlet this morning and as I awaited my bags to be analyzed and swiped, I embarked on a favorite pastime:   

Watching and wondering. 

As a regular flyer out of the world’s busiest airport I am a well-trained customer. My travel coffee cup has been poured out, and my pockets are empty. Even the wristwatch that the agent stated with a smile I could leave on has been removed and is in the bin.  

And yet, there is a problem. The TSA agents go through their tasks like robots. The taped-up block of something sits in the bin at the end of the roller conveyor and no less than 3 TSA agents walk past, ignoring the bin jam backing up so that the agent reviewing the tv screens must pause progress until the customers move the bins around the blocking “thing”. We, the customers, are afraid to touch it lest we mess up something. The process is dependent on technology which is operating as efficiently and effectively as it was designed. The bins were moving from before to after screening and back again nicely; until they weren’t.  

In this case, a designed piece is placed in the system to, I’m guessing here, verify the effective operation of the system. Placed there by the people responsible for ensuring the continued safe operation of that system. As a customer, I don’t know what it does, why it’s needed, or how often it must be run through… I do know that the seriousness of the activity demands that I don’t touch it, as if it’s a religious artifact. 

Why doesn’t anyone touch the “thing”? It’s a block with TSA Tape around it… It must be safe as I saw an agent literally throw it into a bin at the front of the scanner. Here it sits after the scanner as if abandoned… and it’s has made a log jam back up. 

We, the more adventurous travelers stack bins to make room for belongings to come and yet, the jam remains. It occurs to me that customers are trained to work AROUND the problem instead of not knowing if they’re allowed to solve the problem. (Note: why should the customer care when the company responsible for the purpose of the problem doesn’t seem to care. That’s probably a ponderance for another day.) 

For today… I wonder… 

What have we trained our residents to do by not being as efficient and effective as the technology we depend on to provide service? 

When the compactor breaks, or the dumpster lid/door jams open and we don’t address it, what are our customers trained to do or not do? 

When a customer is in the office and the phone keeps ringing, and ringing, and ringing till it doesn’t ring any more, what behavior have we influenced in that customer? 

If our office team promises that the maintenance team will be “right over”, or the maintenance team says they’ll tell the office team without either happening; do our residents feel the same confidence about the level of service they receive that I feel about the level of scrutiny the bags flying have received this morning? 

Just wondering…