"Are you alright there?" the deli lady said....

Over a year ago I wrote a post about customer greeting which resonated with a lot of people. You can see that post here https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/you-ok-brian-quinlan?trk=mp-author-card.

It was simply about a customer walking into a retail situation and being greeted initially with the standard "Are you ok there?"

Unfortunately this is an extremely common greeting which in many situations attracts a very negative response.

There is another very common greeting which also generates the same negative responses and lately I am finding this greeting extremely common.

Just last week I visited a newly opened filling station with a top class deli section. I was super impressed with the display of foods and the cleanliness of the facility. I remarked to myself that the owner of this facility must have spent hundreds of thousand of euro renovating this shop however he made one critical error: Staff Training.

This is how my visit went

I approached deli counter and two girls behind the counter looked at me.

One girl disappeared and the other approached with the classic opening line "Are you alright there?"

I said I would like a sandwich

She said "White or Brown?"

I said white and she said "What do you want in it?"

I told her, she created it , wrapped it and stuck on a price tag. She handed the sandwich creation to me and without even a thanks she asked the lady next to "Are you alright there?"

This initial greeting is not unique to deli counters. It is common in many retail shops, car showrooms, etc.

This greeting also causes confusion with our tourist friends. During the summer I noticed an American tourist at a bar counter. The bar maid approached him and asked was he alright?. Taking her question literally he answered her by saying he was fine. To his shock she then walked away and served another customer simply because he said he was alright ! Confusing isn't it?

I'm not a big fan of scripted greetings because in many cases they can sound very insincere but I am certain that a warm smile and beginning with a "Hello, How are you today? " is a million times better that "Are you OK? or Are you alright?"