Over the last 20 years we’ve lost hundreds of churches and pubs, which is very careless of us.
As Joni Mitchell put it, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone!”
Banks have also been closing at an alarming rate, because, we’re told, less ‘walk-ins’ (previously known as ‘customers’) use them since “everyone banks online”.
However, based on what a mate told me about a recent experience at his bank, I can’t help but wonder if customers are being put off from ‘walking in’ due to the prickly attitude of staff members.
He and his wife went into what is becoming a rare sight these days – a bank in his local town centre. He was delighted to see there was a staff member sat at the counter, which meant he didn’t have to deal with a machine.
The counter staff member was chatting to another staff member – one of those ‘Meeters and Greeters’ who ask if they can help you, but can’t, so you have to wait until another staff member who can help you becomes available.
Unfortunately, this particular ‘Meeter’ wasn’t ‘Greeting’ as she was deep in conversation with her colleague.
With a smile, my friend said to both staff members “It’s great to see a ‘real’ person serving here”.
A perfectly innocent remark that caused the frosty ‘Meeter and Greeter’ to narrow her eyes and coldly stare at him, obviously, but needlessly, on the defensive.
Trying to lighten the situation, my mate laughed and said “You’re staring at me as if I’m not making sense”.
The temperature dropped even lower as the lady snapped, “I’m not staring at you in any way! What is it you want?”
As it turned out, he was unable to complete the transaction, said he’d return another time and bid them a polite, “Goodbye!” When he returned two days later he was told the bank is closing in June.
He takes no pleasure in knowing this will lead to redundancies, but wonders if it might have remained open if the Number One Rule in the staff training manual was ‘Don’t be snippy with ‘walk-ins’.