Change for better customer service

My elder daughter is fond of visiting a popular ice cream outlet. One cold, wintry evening she demanded to go out for an ice cream trip. I gave in to her demand despite enjoying a cozy book reading session in my favorite rocking chair. We arrived at the nearest outlet in a Mall. The counter staff ignored us first because they were busy in a more important job than attending to the customer; logging their sales in a format given by their company. Upon making them aware of our presence, one of the guys dragged himself towards us and asked very casually, " Yes?". My daughter in all her excitement asked to taste a few flavors before settling on one. During all that time, the staff obeyed the instructions with expressions suggestive of, "Are you here to eat for free?" Ignoring their expressions, I moved to the till to pay and took out a 100 bill note and extended my hand towards the staff. And  then came the surprising reply, "Sir, we don't have change."  Not happy with the overall experience so far, I  replied a little sarcastically, "This is not my problem." The staff replied with even more sarcasm, "What can I do? Everybody is coming with a big note today." I then gave the idea in a softer tone to go to the next door coffee shop and get the change. The staff replied abruptly that this is what they had been doing all through the day. Now a little angry I said, "Continue to do so, it is  your job to facilitate your customers." "Sorry sir," came the reply. A little astonished with this kind of an attitude, I asked if they were telling me to go away without taking the ice cream, just because they didn't have change. "No sir, he is not asking you to leave," came the other salesperson's reply, coming to his colleague's rescue. "Then what do you want me do? I am here to buy ice cream for my daughter and you are refusing to sell." Then the other guy dropped the bombshell, when he casually asked me to take the ice cream for free. Now I lost my cool and told both the super sales guys that I didn't want their charity and rather preferred to walk out and go somewhere else and I wondered how many more customers they were going to turn back that day with their laid back attitude. I asked my daughter to leave the cup there and follow me. She obeyed teary-eyed. Both the staff did not even bother to stop me.

Next day I went to grab a sandwich from a deli shop near my office. Standing in queue to pay for my purchase, I was remembering the previous night's experience, when the girl at the till greeted me with a smile and informed me of the price of my purchase. I passed to her a 100 bill note. She looked at me  sheepishly and said, "Sorry sir, we don't have change." The conversation from the previous night's experience rang through my ears. Despite the fear of losing my sandwich, I smiled  and replied that it was not my problem. Before she could say anything, her supervisor overheard my reply and immediately took the situation in his hands and said, "Yes sir, you are right. This is not your problem." He asked me to wait for a while and ran outside to get the change. I thanked God for saving my sandwiches. On his return I asked him why they didn't flag this issue with their company to supply an ample amount of change everyday to avoid such awkward incidences. He nodded in agreement without looking convinced if it was a matter worth discussing.

After having two back to back experiences, I decided to do a little research on this issue. I asked my wife, fellow colleagues, friends and found that each one had experienced similar situations on many occasions. Many mentioned that it is felt that the Till staff expects customers to bring change with them if they want to deal in cash, otherwise plastic should be presented to avoid disappointments. I then decided to record my experiences on cash payments in a week. I was quite shocked to find out that for almost 8 out of 10 experiences, I was asked if I had exact or loose change. One petrol station grocery outlet scored 10 out of 10 on this. In my personal opinion, this issue is a critical problem in customer service but it seems not to have been acknowledged by many companies and almost left to the discretion of the front staff. They are lucky if  that staff has a customer-oriented mind like the deli shop supervisor, otherwise situations like the one I experienced at the ice cream parlour will continue to occur.