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Interesting observation vis-a-vis customer service: A lot of other cultures observe ours and draw the conclusion that American consumers are essentially spoiled brats who can’t brook disappointment but feel they are always entitled to get their way. I’ve decided, though, that most American consumers can handle disappointment just fine–just not at the first level. In other words, if their complaint or suggestion goes farther than just the first person in the store they approach about it, they’ll be satisfied to a degree whether their issue is properly resolved or not.
An example: I went to the Y late today, around 7:30, to work out and to turn in my registration for an upcoming 5K. It was the last day to turn in registration without getting slapped with a late fee, and I thought I was in the green. However, upon approaching the front desk, I was informed that the member service desk had closed at 6 p.m., at which time they had stopped taking registration forms. I pleaded my case to the attendant at the desk and was stonewalled; there was absolutely nothing she could do. I mentioned that nowhere on the form had it said that it had to be turned in by 6–November 25 was the only thing mentioned. “I’m sorry sir, nothing I can do, not my fault,” yadda yadda… At that point I turned around to investigate the member service desk and saw two people sitting behind the counter. I walked over to them, and through a few explanations and some persuasion, got them to waive the late fee and agree that I could just bring my form in the next morning when the desk was officially open.
Thinking back on the event, even if I had gotten turned away at the member service desk, I would have felt better about the situation knowing that I had exhausted at least more than one option in terms of pleading my case. I see this at the grocery store all the time. People will ask me if we have a particular item, and even if they’re ultimately disappointed, they’re happy that I take their issue to the next level up–the customer service clerks–instead of immediately turning them down or issuing a patent response. I think this is a pretty universal attitude. People like to feel empowered.
After resolving the 5K registration issue, I hit the weights for a little bit. The evening of the Friday after Thanksgiving is officially the best time to go to the gym. The weight room was completely empty and it was nice to have everything totally to myself. I felt a bit as if I had just come into a hefty chunk of money and had splurged and built my own private gymnasium annex onto the house. Although, truth be told, I would have had different music. Justin Timberlake, Rob Thomas and Nickelback don’t exactly fire me up.
The weight room is unfair to tall people. We’re at a disadvantage on just about every exercise. How, you ask? Leverage. Longer limbs mean farther to push/pull the weight for a given rep and also means the weight, or load (for you physics fogies) is farther from the joint (or fulcrum), requiring greater force to move. Not only that, but we just need more material, period, to bulk up to the same degree as shorter folks on account of the longer distances between limbs. I see a short person on the bench press, moving the weight the extent of his arms’ travel (all of 12 inches) and think, “It’s so not fair,” as I climb on the same bench and have to press the weight two feet because of my freakishly long arms.
Being slim, on the other hand, is a decided advantage, especially for the types of exercises I favor–more body weight resistance ones, or calisthenics. My reasoning is that it’s good to be able to move a lot of weight, period, but being able to move weight in relation to one’s own body mass is advantageous for all kinds of athletic pursuits, not to mention agility and flexibility. So in terms of exercises like chin-ups and dips, where I am disadvantaged by tallness, I have the advantage of lightness (relatively speaking) and things even out. That’s what I tell myself, at least.
The gym here plays great music, even though I still use my iPod. Dance, techno, John Legend, Gwen Stefani (not too keen on the last but still better than Nickelback).
I agree wholeheartedly… for all your reasons and a new one… the time consumption of moving the seats, bars, or other pieces of the given apparatus. Sadly, at my gym, it seems to be all short people except for me, because everything is stuck at “too short.”
Very nice. My old gym in Chapel Hill would have certain musical “themes” for given days–i.e. a techno day, a classic rock day, a metal day… It was kind of amusing sometimes to see the older ladies on the weight machines in a sort of dazed trance as Tool and Korn blasted over the loudspeakers.
This is true, especially if you’re alternating sets with a shorter person. I don’t do many exercises on the machines, though (more of a free-weight guy), so I don’t run into that problem much.
Exactly… especially since you’re supposed to alternate muscle groups… but free-weights are something I avoid other than a few hand weight exercises. Things like “the skull crusher” and “Arnold presses” scare me. I think it’s rather common for girls to go more for machines and guys for the more manly free weights, bar bells, and the like.
I see what you mean about customer service. At Circuit City, I see that all the time – although we usually try to right whatever wrong the customer is complaining about, even if we lose money on the deal. It’s very interesting to see.
As for gyms, I’m scared of those things. I don’t care what kind of music they do play :)
I’ve been doing “skull crushers” for the past couple of weeks… They’re not as scary as they look–it’s easy to get the weight out of the way if it won’t go up any more–unlike the bench press, where you really are up a creek if you don’t have a spotter. And agreed about the respective tendencies of girls and guys in the weight room.
After working Friday I can imagine you’ve probably seen every variation of customer service imaginable… I’m still in awe.
What scary about gyms? Yeah, there are creepy and/or amped-up people there, but you get those anywhere, really.
Very true. Very true. I guess the customer either feels that by having it taken to the next level that either 1) you have pursuaded someone to side with you on the issue, or 2) you have successfully ordered another human being to do something and they have complied, giving the customer the illusion of power.
My favorite and oft self-recited arguement about lifting. Alas, it is seemingly an issue only known or cared for by those like us. I think if there was just one short stocky person who would come up out of the blue and acknowledge that they have an unfair advantage and recognize that, surely, i am incomparably stronger than they…i would be happy, having successfully evangelized the smaller sub-species of humanity. ;)
That second paragraph made me laugh :) As far as wanting just one short person to come clean about their unfair advantage, there’s little chance of it. Maybe if we offered them a conciliatory gesture first, like say, admitting that we have an unfair advantage when it comes to reaching items on the top shelf… Who knows.
As a relatively tall person (at least for my gender) I have to agree that short people tend to be prouder (at least for the other gender). But I must say, your argument sounds a lot like mine for wanting the whole world to admit that math is the ultimate : )
You could call it “the fear of the unknown.” I don’t know how any of the machines work, and I don’t know how people work out when others are just gawking at them. It seems to me that people who go to the gym are a different kind of breed, but all of my friends go, so that’s not a practical reason.