When I worked at Easy Street Records, we had a very prominent musician come in to do a signing to promote his then upcoming album. He is a very well known artist, especially in Seattle since this is where he hails from. I personally was not, nor currently am, a fan of this particular person. That said, I pride myself on my customer service skills and was determined to make this individual feel welcome and comfortable. I always set my expectations for myself very hard and tend to take it harshly if I do not deliver. In this instance I should have done some light reading or research on this guy. If I had, I would have known that he is famously sober, and a recovering alcoholic. I did no such research though and shortly after he arrived, I very casually offered him a complimentary alcoholic beverage. Now, the failure of this story comes from me not achieving the level of professionalism I pride myself on. The musician though, also could have handled the situation in a much kinder way than he did. He proceeded to lay into me about how I should have known better than to ask him that and that I was a complete moron for not knowing that he was in recovery. While yes, I easily could have figured that out, it is my belief that it truly was not part of my job to do such research and could have been informed his team. So, in that respect I think this counts as a failure to meet my own expectations and also a failure at developing trust on both my end and his. From that moment on though, I always did research on whoever was coming to the establishment and how I could give them the best service I could offer.
Categories