For those who didn’t know, my very first job as a 16 year old was to work as a cashier and sandwich maker at a Wendy’s in a mall food court. To say the least, it wasn’t a glamorous job. In fact, I hated most things about working there, but I hung in there.
Anyways looking back, I realized I learned a lot about myself and about others from my time in the not-so-glamorous fast food industry. Here’s seven of my takeaways.
1. Honor your most loyal customers with discounts.
Every Sunday, I can vividly remember serving the same petite 90-year-old lady her usual order, a Frosty and a loaded baked potato cut down the middle. She always came to the mall food court at the same time every Sunday in her best church outfit. Every week, we said hi, called her by her first name, brought the order to her table and gave her a senior citizen’s discount. Now, this was a $3 order and certainly wasn’t going to make Wendy’s rich, but being courteous is contagious.
This lesson always goes for the communities you manage. Do you have a person(s) that religiously likes and comments on your blog, Facebook page, etc.? Make sure to reach out to them and offer them an occasional discount to your store or the opportunity to guest post.
2. The customer is always right.
As a cashier, I dealt with some of the most rude and obnoxious customers. Many of them would be talking on their cell phone while ordering. Others would spill stuff and just walk away. Some would even insist on paying for $20 orders in only nickels, dimes and pennies. Let’s not forget the ones that would start screaming matches over the counter when someone screwed up their order. You know what, the only thing I could do was smile back at them, listen and offer to make things right.
This also applies for community managers. Someone will always complain or not like how your brand handles something. All you can do is smile back, listen and try to make things right.
3. You can accomplish anything with solid teamwork.
Cliche as it sounds, teamwork is essential in both community management and fast food. You can’t be a one-man show during a busy lunch rush. Nor while managing a community. You need the support and help from senior management and your coworkers to do the best possible work.
4. Commonsense is NOT always so common. Sadly.
What may seem like common sense to you and me isn’t always so common to someone else. Don’t EVER assume that someone knows something. Go over the ground rules for your community the same way that you would train a new fast food employee. (Yes, I was in charge of training new employees. I have plenty of stories.)
5. The power of multitasking
Working the weekend lunch rush was always an exercise in multitasking. I could be taking an order, filling drinks, cleaning the counter and getting orders for previous customers orders all within a minute. You have to be able to shift seemlessly between several different tasks in order to stay on top of things.
The same thing applies for community managers. While the job descriptions vary across the board, chances are you will wear multiple hats. You need to shift between those hats seemlessly.
6. Be resilient.
There are many times where I wanted to complain, cry and/or curse out obnoxious customers (oh and fellow coworkers too) while working at Wendy’s. But, you know what I couldn’t do that. I had to put aside my frustrations and bounce back in order to do the best job I could do.
I can guarantee life won’t always be peachy as a community manager either. That’s why being resilient is key. When things don’t go your way, you have to know how to bounce back and fight harder to do better next time.
7. An angry customer isn’t usually angry at you, but at the situation in general.
It’s so important to try and not take customers’ angry comments personally. It will destroy as a community manager or as a fast food employee. It’s tough but you can’t let emotions get the best of you. Emotions usually cloud your judgment. Take a few seconds to simmer down if you need to. Then, try to rationalize and think about what can be done to make things right for the customer.
