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Loading ...I watched the YouTube clip of Susan Boyle on BBC’s Britain’s Got Talent singing I Dreamed A Dream from the Broadway show Les Miserables today. It originally aired about ten days ago and the clip has been seen by close to 13 million people so far. Lots of articles have been written about her … here’s my take.
What is so shocking to me is to watch the audience before she sang. The judgment, the roll of the eyes, the heckling, the outright laughing at this middle-aged woman daring to think she had talent. 
The song she chose became art imitating real life:
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong
Before she sang those words, she stood on that stage and took whatever came her way from the judges and audience, both eager to witness failure.
How many times have we judged a customer who looked like they would be asking for loose change rather than paying several thousand dollars in cash for a purchase? How many times after a sale when a customer presented their black American Express card did we say to ourselves, “If I only knew, I would have done better?” I know I have.
But that’s the trick in retail isn’t it? We get to work on ourselves with every new person we meet. Preconceived notions have to go out the window or we perish.
Today, approach a customer as if they were someone worthy of respect, interest and care. Hold the cynicism and judgment for another day.
And if you struggle with it consider it might be time to let go of that behavior. We shouldn’t be shocked with the Susan Boyle’s of the world.
It’s easy to be nasty. Higher sales comes from making relationships by valuing both your employees and your customers. Don’t get comfortable being in the audience.
