First to the mods, if this belongs in IMHO, then my apologies.
Now, I’ve done a couple of threads like this, and I should quit while I’m ahead, but I just would like to know what the right answers are. I’m applying on-line to be a Starbucks Barista. I don’t particularly want to be one, but I need a job, so I’m applying anyway.
I got to a page where I have to answer “Your Reaction to Different Job Situations” I’ll post two of the questions, answers to choose from, and what I chose. I’m really curious if I’m choosing right, and if not, then why I’m wrong.
During a team meeting, your supervisor remarks that some supplies were not put back where they belonged. A co-worker criticizes you for not putting away the supplies, even though you know that they were actually left out by another person. Which of the following would you most likely do?
Ignore your co-worker’s criticisms.
Immediately tell your co-worker that it wasn’t your fault the supplies were not put away.
Tell your supervisor later that your co-worker was unfairly criticizing you.
Tell everyone in the meeting who was responsible for not putting away the supplies.
I chose “Immediately tell your co-worker that it wasn’t your fault the supplies were not put away.” They may want you to go to your supervisor afterwords, but the wording makes it sound like you’re kind of being whiny.
A customer asks you to show her how to use a product she wants to purchase (e.g., espresso machine or coffee grinder) that you are not very familiar with. The store is very busy and all of your co-workers are busy with other customers. Which of the following would you most likely do?
* Wait with the customer until one of your co-workers is available to help the customer.
* Tell the customer you are not familiar with the product, but would be happy to try and figure out how the product works.
* Apologize to the customer and tell her that you do not know how it works.
* Find a similar product that you are more familiar with and show it to the customer.
I chose “Wait with the customer until one of your co-workers is available to help the customer.”
I think the correct response to Q1 is to tell your supervisor alone at a later time. Then you can explain yourself fully without interrupting the meeting, and you’ll avoid an altercation with your co-worker in front of the rest of the staff. This allows the supervisor the opportunity to deal with the situation as she sees fit, and avoids what could become a dramatic situation. Having said that, IRL I’d probably confront the person right away as it’s pretty hard to bite your tongue when you’re being unfairly accused of something in front of others.
I agree with you for Q2. Actually, the best thing to do would be to ask a co-worker to explain the machine while you finish taking care of their customer so you aren’t just standing around waiting, but that’s not a choice.
Team meetings are not the time or place for finger pointing. I’d ignore it.
I’d apologize for not being able to produce expert assistance on the spot, and offer to go through the instructions in the user manual with the customer. Or if the customer would prefer it, I’d put her into contact with a known expert, and let it be understood that she is to be the expert’s next point of focus.
It’s all about making the customer perceive that I care about her having the in-store experience that is most useful to her.
These are kind of trick questions. They’re meant to gain some insight into your personality, rather than recommending a particular course of action.
Q1. Ignore. This is too indicate you aren’t thin skinned and won’t react badly to unfair criticism. But that’s really for customer interaction, you don’t have much of a team if you are being unfairly criticized, and can’t respond.
Q2. Wait. This shows you have concern for the customer and will do your best to fulfill their request, without giving them the wrong information or trying to switch them to a different product. The real answer wasn’t in the list though. You should switch with another employee who knows how the product works, and is doing something you do know how to do.
The most important thing to Starbucks is that you give the same answers as other employees they like.
I completely disagree with the answers given for the second question. To my mind, the right answer is “Tell the customer you are not familiar with the product, but would be happy to try and figure out how the product works.” I used to ask a very similar question in interviews and that was the ‘correct’ type of answer, rather than waiting for someone to help you.
Someone in a customer-facing role can’t always be an expert. As long as you’re honest about your level of understanding of something, if there’s no other assistance available then your responsibility is to give it the ol’ college try before going to someone else. I mean, it’s an espresso machine, not a tractor, nobody’s going to lose an arm if you try looking at it for a few minutes. Lots of times, the customer is going to ask you something really easy to answer even if you’re not an expert, just by using common sense or checking the manual (or even the outside of the box).
In customer service, there are those people that completely lack any initiative – if they’re not 100% sure about something, they will keep customers waiting indefinitely and waste a lot of valuable time while they putter around getting someone to hold their hand. That’s what, to me, this question is trying to screen out. Largely, this simply isn’t necessary, and said individuals never learn anything because they never try to solve any problems.
Think of it this way. If you’re a retailer during a holiday rush, or a call center manager in a busy center with calls waiting on hold for 20 minutes, would you want the person who wouldn’t give a customer an answer about anything if they weren’t absolutely, positively sure that they were an expert on that subject? Or, would you like the person who took the initiative to try to resolve the problem on their own as best as they could using the available resources before relying on someone else to help them? I would imagine that Starbucks is the same. There’s probably no class for Advanced Home Espresso Machine Instruction and chances are the best answers to the user’s questions are in the documentation with the product. Remember, the question says “try to help them”. That doesn’t exclude trying and failing, and going another direction.
That’s a good point, but I think most places want to do as much business as possible, so if learning about a product slows somebody down, their supervisor might not be that happy with them.
At a production plant where I use to work, you were supposed to be equally concerned with quality and quantity, but the supervisors really only cared about quantity.
Gosh, am I the only one who wants a fifth option for the first scenario?
In team-building, I would try and both spread and share the blame; take some culpability as there must be some reason that I am being pointed out for something and indicates a bigger issue, but also suggest that we could all do better in sharing the load of putting away supplies and helping one another with this type of minutiae.
The real answer would start with, ‘Pause, and wait for the supervisor to say something’. The supervisor should calmly dispel specific blame, and go with the second part of your suggestion. If the supervisor doesn’t do that, you have to state the facts though. If you really are culpable, for instance if you failed to help the employee who didn’t complete their job, you might share the blame. But if you had nothing to do with it, and the supervisor hasn’t done their job properly in the meeting, you should state the facts.