A nearby cafe, well placed to be successful with a loyal local following, recently changed hands, taken over by a mother and her two children.

Mother seems a bit shy but is charming; her son is also charming, outgoing and openly affectionate with his mother. In contrast, the daughter has no charm… at all.

So which one would you put on the front counter? Anybody but the daughter, right?

Well this family has the daughter fronting customers. Why would they do that?

Charm can be superficial, of course. Sometimes it’s the grumpy rough diamond who wins us over when they show us that they care about us and go the extra distance to give us quality product and service.

Not in this case, though.  My hot chocolate was tepid, the cocoa left to form a congealed lump at the bottom of the cup.  She was graceless, unfriendly and unhelpful.  Not an encounter likely to tempt me back.

My question is: how can people be so insensitive to the needs of their customers; so unaware of how people might respond to them… Unable to match their resources (such as people) to the most appropriate tasks and roles?