Stop right there!
Every now and then, there’s a moment when it just feels right to put a halt to things, assert yourself and say stop!
I had one of these yesterday, leaving the car park at Musgrove Park Hospital (operated by Q-Park) in Taunton. Apologies for the preamble: I’ve spent the last 3+ weeks coming and going, daily, paying exorbitant charges to visit my sick father. Yesterday, once through the barrier, it took 12 minutes to find a parking space (why don’t people just go to the top where there are always plenty of spaces?). Returning to my car an hour and a half later (allowing myself 15 mins. to get out, even though I’d been robbed of 15 mins. already), the two pay machines at my end of the car park were out of order so I would have to pay at the barrier…in a still gridlocked car park. It then took 20 mins. to reach the barrier, pushing me over the time limit into the next charging band. The pay machine at the barrier asked for £10 so I pressed the call button for help and explained my predicament. I was told by the Q-Park attendant that he could neither reduce my fee to the 2 hour charge of £6.20 nor lift the barrier to let me out.
This was when my moment hit me and I decided to stand my ground: I asked what he could do to help and he said, “Nothing”. Telling him that wasn’t good enough, I said I’d wait for a better response. Nothing happened – bearing in mind the gridlocked car park, queuing cars were building up behind me so I was now making the situation worse for others. Many people at this juncture would have just paid – we’re all at a hospital for good reason, some quite high stress reasons, no-one wants to cause others more stress. I felt bad but, to my mind, this attendant should have felt empowered to offer me a more reasonable solution. Q-Park either doesn’t feel the need to empower its staff or they don’t care.
I pressed the help button (how strangely named) again, repeated my story. I wasn’t sure whether this was the same attendant or another but he simply reduced my fee to £6.20, I paid and drove away. Had that happened the first time I pressed the button, I would have driven away thinking, “That was a good and fair thing for Q-Park to do”, however, as it was, I left thinking that Q-Park ought to know better, ought to train its staff better, and that I will now be avoiding their parking facilities in future (if I have a choice!).
Behaviour (and kind behaviour in a hospital setting) is all-important. Your employees are your brand – what they live and breathe, how they behave is what your customers experience. Give them a great experience – or in the case of Q-Park, a fair experience. Don’t let your business be the thing that stops someone in their tracks for the wrong reasons.
Coaching is all about behaviour and awareness of our impact on others.
Give your employees the power to use their discretion if you’re offering a help button.
