07/22/2024
When I was a newbie Barista for Starbucks ages ago, as part of my customer service training, I remember clearly a memo from corporate about the language we use as partners troubleshooting or assisting our customers. We were instructed to forgo the colloquial “No problem!” and frame our responses to the customers’ request positively:
“I’d be happy to remake your caramel macchiato with no foam this time ”
(Ask me about making caramel macchiatos without foam. Ahem.)
“You would like more whipped cream on your Frappuccino? My pleasure!”
(Three weeks in a row circa 2001, through the drive-thru a gal orders a venti white mocha, then giggles at the window she meant iced and when handed the iced drink, exclaimed “oops! I guess I meant a Frappuccino” )
“Oh, you wanted that iced instead of hot? I would be delighted to remake that for you. ”
The caffeinated powers that be believed that saying “No Problem” puts it in the customer’s mind that there is something wrong with their request, that there really is a problem, and we are just humoring them to deal with it. And that it reinforced for the baristas that the customer’s request was an inconvenience and an interruption, not our actual job.
I marveled that corporate thought it smacked of insincerity more to use the glib negative response than the forced politeness of the other. What it took me a while to understand – and then pass on to the partners I trained when I eventually became a store manager – is that language creates the ethos, the atmosphere even the mindset.
Back in the day, the ‘Bucks wanted to be people’s “Third Place” – A welcoming friendly accepting place people wanted to hang out, read a book, meet for a first date, write the next great American novel on their laptop, even have a wedding ! I have fond memories of scones and hot chocolates with my kids when they were young playing hooky from church and going to “St. Arbucks” instead from time to time.
(Home was your first place; Work was your second place, and your Third Place was another spot you belonged. Also: We did have a wedding once in our café – Bride, Groom, Justice of the Peace and Starbucks Lemon Loaf as wedding cake. )
Over the years though capitalism won, the bottom line and profit margins overtook the customer experience as top priority. And more and more these days it feels as though customer service has become an oxymoron, that the human part of the equation doesn’t factor in anymore. If I were still in retail, I would tell my people that what we say and how we say it matters even more than ever.
With so much of our lives automated and driven by outcomes beyond our control, that moment of human connection is deeply meaningful. You don’t know what that person is going through, what has happened to them in the past, what they are facing when they get to wherever they are going – so for that one moment – see them, be present to them.
As a Christian pastor I will add to that, for you my beloveds, to practice meeting everyone as a beloved child of God, seeing in them the imago Dei and marvel at its complexity and variation. Be curious and open and filled with wonder. Celebrate what you find. Do this Intentionally. And with practice over time, it will be easier and more obvious to the point you wonder how you ever missed it before.
The words we use speak our reality into being. Reinforce the mindset of a problem or interruption in the coffee shop. Or difference from the assumed norm and standard. At FCC we are an open and affirming congregation – we say all are welcome, we say we affirm everyone’s identity.
What do people hear when we say “we don’t care if you are different, we don’t care if you are gay or q***r or le***an or trans, we don’t care if you are poor or illiterate or unemployed or neurodivergent or disabled”
What we intend to mean, what we want to convey is we celebrate all of who you are, everything about you that makes you uniquely YOU. Every part of you is welcome here. You don’t have to hide any bits that some of us find awkward or unconventional; and we are not going to ignore any of those parts either and pretend they aren’t part of you.
As we practice this – here at First Christian Church – and out there in the rest of our lives, in the rest of the world God still loves, we co-create a more loving world, we influence the ethos of the community or conversation, we are part of creating that better world of love of flourishing that God wants, that we all want.
Peace be,
Pastor Jenny
