This morning I was at Coffee Bean getting a coffee and the person behind the counter took my order for an Americano and then asked me not one but two ridiculous questions.
The first question was, "Would you like whipped cream with your Americano?"
My response was not meant to be rude but I'm sure came across that way, "You're kidding right? I've never been asked if I want whipped cream in my Americano. Black Forest yes. Frappucino yes. Whipped cream in an Americano? No I don't need it. Thanks."
"Sorry we have to ask is all."
" Okay no big deal."
And then came the next ridiculous question, "Would you like that here or to go?"
"Does it matter? Aren't literally all the drinks to go? I've never been asked that either?"
"We have to ask that is all."
"I'm confused. Why would you when you're just handing out drinks. You don't have trays back there do you?"
"No sir. We don't", I could see he must have taken a lot of crap for this question. If they were asking that one daily, I bet he had to hear about it all day.
"You know what. Let's live a little. I'll take mine to go. How's that."
"Thank you."
The clerk rang up my total and his questions reminded me of a sales call I went on 5 years ago. They were useless questions and didn't even elicit a good response. The situation went like this:
We were selling uniforms at the time and we went to the corporate offices of Big O Tires. It was an initial call with the warehouse manager and we met him in the warehouse and walked through the entire place to get to his office in the back. We passed stacks and stacks of tires. Tires were everywhere, and when we get to his office and sit down with him to discuss business, what was the first question out of the sales rep's mouth?
"What do you guys do here?" The warehouse manager's response was classic, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
I'm surprised the rep didn't ask him "here or to go?"
Stupid questions elicit even worse responses. Make each one count.
-M
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