Please Be Patient – I’m New!

Does a nametag have to bear the person’s name? It better!

I was eating lunch at a local sandwich place when I noticed an interesting nametag – if you can call it that. Because the staff recently had a large employee turnover, many new clerks were on the floor. The girl behind the counter had a plastic nametag with red and white writing that said, “Please Be Patient. I’m New!”

This nametag has both positive and negative implications. First of all, letting customers know that new employees may be slower in their service processes will be valuable for creating empathy and consideration of longer waits. It also is a good conversation starter, even moreso than normal nametags.

Unfortunately, the reason these nametags are completely useless in the realm of standard nametag practice is: they don’t give the employees’s name! What good is a nametag if it doesn’t give the name of the person wearing it! Furthermore, if new employees are possibly going to have adjustment problems, having their names on the tags IN ADDITION to the “disclaimer of possible slow service” would only help other employees and customers make them feel appreciated!

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How do you make new employees feel welcome?

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Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com