Adrenaline rush
Anyone who didn't know me would probably have thought, by the time we closed on Saturday, that I was on something. I'd been working at the counter for eight-and-a-half hours straight (with one toilet break), having refused a lunch break on the grounds that I was enjoying myself too much.
Among my first customers were a couple who said, as they sat down in front of me, that they hoped I'd be getting them their seats as they remembered how good I'd been last year (I didn't know them from Adam, but still, you don't reject compliments). It was just as well they were in a good mood because the software let us down in a big way, losing track of their entire booking - with the exception of the payment, naturally - so we had to start all over again ... Later on, two women were taken aback by the amount of detail I started going into with regards to their seating options ("if you sit on the right side, you'll see the two violins, as opposed to getting a great view of the viola and 'cello from the left"). With a few exceptions, most people were perfectly polite - there was a certain amount of relief at having reached the counter after sometimes as much as six hours' wait - but in retrospect, I wonder if I didn't start grinning inanely as my enthusiasm took over.
Put it this way: we stopped allowing people in at 3 o'clock and thus reached the end of the queue at about six. It didn't deter me, however, as I was telling anyone who would listen I wanted more customers ...
Then I had some coffee. As you do.
Fast forward to Monday, still plagued with a number of credit card problems, only this time on the phones, which didn't stop ringing all day - at least until the phone system stopped working and we couldn't make or take any calls. Tuesday was a slight improvement, at least as far as the hardware was concerned, but there were far fewer customers. Not to mention most of the best seats having long since been taken.
I've had the day off today and to be honest, now that I'm off that (however naturally-induced) high, I'm glad of the rest.
Among my first customers were a couple who said, as they sat down in front of me, that they hoped I'd be getting them their seats as they remembered how good I'd been last year (I didn't know them from Adam, but still, you don't reject compliments). It was just as well they were in a good mood because the software let us down in a big way, losing track of their entire booking - with the exception of the payment, naturally - so we had to start all over again ... Later on, two women were taken aback by the amount of detail I started going into with regards to their seating options ("if you sit on the right side, you'll see the two violins, as opposed to getting a great view of the viola and 'cello from the left"). With a few exceptions, most people were perfectly polite - there was a certain amount of relief at having reached the counter after sometimes as much as six hours' wait - but in retrospect, I wonder if I didn't start grinning inanely as my enthusiasm took over.
Put it this way: we stopped allowing people in at 3 o'clock and thus reached the end of the queue at about six. It didn't deter me, however, as I was telling anyone who would listen I wanted more customers ...
Then I had some coffee. As you do.
Fast forward to Monday, still plagued with a number of credit card problems, only this time on the phones, which didn't stop ringing all day - at least until the phone system stopped working and we couldn't make or take any calls. Tuesday was a slight improvement, at least as far as the hardware was concerned, but there were far fewer customers. Not to mention most of the best seats having long since been taken.
I've had the day off today and to be honest, now that I'm off that (however naturally-induced) high, I'm glad of the rest.
Labels: work
posted by Anthony at
15:59
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home