Store owners: sometimes your customer service training SUCKS! Your employees cannot make this kind of a statement to a customer without it making YOU look like an idiot!

“I’m only nice to them if they’re nice to me!”

This attitude is “very common” among employees, and is why most customer service SUCKS! Train your employees to be nice! This is also why most relationships and friendships can – all of a sudden – completely SUCK. Most people are only nice when they’re being treated nicely. Otherwise, most people are just getting back at the other person. This includes your employees “getting back” at your customers – tit-for-tat (“equivalent retaliation”).

Ever smile at somebody who smiled at you? Ever yell at somebody who yell at you? Ever flip off somebody for cutting you off on the freeway? Ever hear one of your kids say “He hit me first!” when you tell them to stop fighting?

Be nicer than you’re being treated. Smile.