A couple weeks ago there was a
report on CNN that a Starbucks barista in the US, Sandra Andersen, donated her kidney to a female customer to save her life. Wow. Talk about pushing customer service to a new limit.
Made me wonder what lengths I would go through for a customer. Imagine the exchange! Are you in need of any internal organs to go with your mocha? Before you know it, Starbucks cards will also double as organ donor cards. Do I get an extra large tip for that? (Too bad Australians are not into tipping... my charm is wasted on a nation of non-tippers. I could be rich by now.)
I am all too familiar with the barista-customer relationship. It's a great relationship, and it will continue to be great so long as you don't majorly, majorly stuff up their coffee, and if you see to it that you always have the espresso bar to separate you from each other. You get to know each other always at arm's length, through chirpy, glib little exchanges once a day, without ever letting familiarity really take root and begin to breed contempt. You'll never get to know each other's despicable views on sex, politics, and religion. You'll never hear each other's secret, racist thoughts (which everyone secretly harbors in this multi-cultural stew pot). It's always how's the weather, how's work, how was your weekend, how's your broken arm?
Not to say that customer service isn't sincere. But it's definitely a distinct mindset you have to switch on, one that is sometimes prone to cracks and fractures, and would be unsustainable in the real world. This is the nature of customer service. It makes me wonder what spirit of compassion summoned Sandra Anderson to make the leap from customer service to humanitarian service.
I can think of only one or two customers I would donate parts of my body to, and it would have to be something minor like blood, hair, or fingernail clippings. Well, fine, maybe a skin graft.
I have, however, lent or donated my time, advice, listening skills, Magic Sing, and comic books to certain customers. Don't I get some sort of award for that? Or maybe a big tip.
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This is what I look like when I'm making my puppet.
A terrorist.
