Onboarding
Our Company Culture: A Commitment to Our Customers
The first video on the screen was titled “Our Company Culture” and when Caroline pressed the link, the video started.
The video started with a screen with the words “Our Company Culture: A Commitment to Excellence” which then dissolved into the image of two men in suits. “Greetings,” said the first man, “I’m Bryce Smith.”
“And I’m Paul Patterson,” said the other man.
“Welcome to Smith and Patterson,” both men said together.
“Our company is built on the concept of a commitment to excellence,” Bryce began. “Everything that we do is built around that concept but within that concept there are three pillars: a commitment to our customers, a commitment to our coworkers and a commitment to ourselves.”
“That’s right,” Paul continued. “In this video, you will examine each of these core pillars. By the end of this video, you will have a very deep understanding of what a commitment to excellence means and how you make this company even better and now once again …”
“Welcome to our company,” the two men said in unison.
Once more, the screen dissolved and now an unseen male voice talked about a commitment to excellence and the three pillars before taking Caroline to a screen titled “A Commitment to our Customers.”
“Have you ever heard the term the customer is always right?” the announcer asked. “I’ll bet you have. In fact, we all have, but in truth of fact, we know that isn’t the case. That phrase is built around the desire to give the customer what he or she wants but sometimes the customer has unreasonable demands. Sometimes, the customer doesn’t know what he wants. Sometimes, a customer wants one thing when what he really needs is something else. Our job is to guide the customer to give him the best solution possible. Consider the following situation.”
The video changed to two people in what appeared to be a break area. Another man walked into the break area and the woman suddenly became alert. “Mr. Jeffries,” the woman said. “Are you lost? How can I help you?”
“I was looking for something to eat,” the man said in a slightly belligerent tone. “The crap you people have in the waiting area is garbage so I thought I’d come see what you people are eating back here in your break room.”
“Mr. Jeffries,” the woman said, “I’m sorry that you don’t like the offerings in the guest area but this is an employees only area. I must ask you to return to the guest area.”
“Listen here, little lady,” the man said. “For what I’m paying you guys, I should be able to get whatever I want around here.”
The woman was adamant. “Mr. Jeffries,” she said, “I must ask you to return to the assigned waiting area.”
And now the scene froze. “Was the customer right in that situation?” the unseen narrator asked. “I dare say most of you would say he was not right. Clearly, Mr. Jeffries had overstepped his bounds and the employee was well within her right to tell the man politely but firmly that he needed to return to the appropriate area.”
Caroline sighed. Yeah sure, that was obvious but that was the problem. It was obvious. Why did she have to take a stupid training course to hear someone tell her something that was that obvious?
“I imagine you’re thinking that was rather obvious,” the narrator continued almost as if he were reading Caroline’s mind, “and if that was what you were thinking then that’s just fine. Of course it was obvious because it was supposed to be. It’s merely a way of saying that the customer is NOT always right but we have a commitment to our customers. THEY are why we are here. The money THEY pay our company is why WE have jobs so the customer isn’t always right but we do have a commitment to do right by our customers.”
Okay fine, Caroline thought. She could get that. Maybe a little heavy-handed but she could get that.
“But where do we draw the line between the great customer service that we want to give and want to be known for and between giving too much away? That is the question. You will be presented with four scenarios and you will be asked to answer if this is good customer service or not. Are you ready to proceed?”
Caroline clicked the Yes button.
The first situation was an employee helping out a difficult and demanding customer and what was worse, the customer seemed to keep changing his mind about what he wanted even as the employee tried to find the right solution to the customer’s problem which was finally resolved. “Was this the right response?” the video asked.
Caroline clicked the Yes button.
“Very good. Let’s continue.” The next video showed a customer who was clearly drunk. The employee tried to tell the customer that he needed to calm down or she was going to call the police. Finally, the man grabbed the employee and she grabbed a nearby broom and cracked it over the man’s head. “Was this the right response?” the video asked.
Caroline clicked the No button.
“That is correct. Clearly in the case of an emergency, the employee could use whatever means to defend herself but this was clearly a situation that had been escalating for some time. The employee should have called for help or followed through on calling the police. Not calling the police only provoked the man’s behavior. Let’s continue.” The next video showed a customer that was berating another employee. The employee then stepped in to see if she could help even though the man didn’t seem to want help. The employee could be seen looking at her watch as if there was somewhere she needed to be but she volunteered to help the customer out so she could get him disengaged from the other employee and in the end, he thanked her for taking the time to help him. “Was this the right response?” the video asked.
Caroline clicked the Yes button.
“Very good. While the employee was clearly pressed for time, she wanted to go the extra mile to help the customer out and in the end, she brought the solution to a satisfactory conclusion. Let’s continue.” The final scene showed a secretary in an office. Her boss and one of his clients were watching her and she knew they were talking about her. Finally, the boss called her over and told her that his client wanted to fuck her to which the employee meekly agreed and let herself be bent over her desk so she could be fucked while her boss and the rest of the office watched her. “Was this the right response?” the video asked.
Caroline clicked the No button.
There was a painful electrical shock where the device had been attached to her finger and then the video said, “Ooh, no, that is an incorrect response.”
What the fuck, Caroline thought. How the hell could that be an incorrect response so she clicked the No button once again.
Once more, there was an electrical shock that if anything seemed more intense than what she’d felt before. “That is an incorrect response,” she was told again.
What the fuck? How could that be wrong and not believing what she was being told, she hit the No button again only to be zapped yet again and even more strongly than before.
That couldn’t be right, could it, but then Caroline moved the mouse from No to Yes and she clicked the mouse yet again.
“That is a correct response,” the video said. “Female employees must be willing to offer up their bodies at any time.”
What the fuck! No, that couldn’t possibly be the right response, Caroline thought but when she tried to look away, she got a massive shock which once more drew her eyes back to the screen in front of her.
“Cindy needs your help,” the narrator explained.
The scene dissolved into a scene of a blond girl in her early twenties. She wore a name tag that said her name was Cindy and she seemed to be working in a flooring store because she was looking at a roll of carpet when a Black man approached her. “I was wondering if you could help me,” the man said,
“Yes, sir. How can I help?” Cindy asked.
“Well, I was over there looking at some carpeting for my home and I couldn’t help but notice your sexy ass over here and I was thinking I’d really like to get my dick inside you and I couldn’t help but think maybe we could work out a deal.”
“Really, sir, that’s hardly appropriate on any level. I’m fine helping you select what you need for your home.”
“Oh really? Tell me, do you work on commission?”
“Not that it’s any of your business but the answer to that is yes but I fail to see what that has to do with anything.”
“Oh you don’t, do you? I was just thinking that the more you let me fuck you, the more I buy and the more I buy, the more of a commission you make. The way I see it is it’s a win-win situation,”
The scene froze there and there were now four buttons at the bottom of the screen. One read “Report the customer to her boss immediately.” Another read “Offer to suck his cock but go no further.” Another read “Take him to the back and tell him he could fuck her if his order was big enough.” The final button read, “Take her clothes off and let him bend her over a roll of carpet and tell him to fuck her like the whore she is.”
“What should Cindy do?” the narrator asked.
An easy answer, Caroline thought. She moved her mouse over to the button that said Cindy should report the customer and she clicked the mouse.
Once more, Caroline received a shock. She wasn’t sure if the shocks were getting stronger or if her aversion to getting shocked was getting stronger but she desperately wanted to make whichever selection it was that wouldn’t get her another shock so she quickly selected the blow job button.
Another shock and she selected the take him out back button and she was shocked yet again. Finally in desperation, she selected the last button.
“That is the correct decision,” the narrator said. “You should always look for opportunities where you can be seen to give good customer service. It tells the rest of our customers that we care about them and their needs and wants. Cindy thanks you for her assistance.”
Caroline couldn’t believe that she’d let herself select that button. She certainly hadn’t meant to select it and yet she had. She could tell herself that she’d only selected it because of the shocks she’d been given but somehow, that just didn’t seem altogether right. The fact that she’d selected it at all had left her disappointed in herself.
“Our customers are important to us,” the narrator said. “When we take care of our customers then our customers take care of us. This concludes this portion of your training. When you are ready, feel free to select and view the next training session.”