Service with a Smile

“Hello Ma’am, do you have a moment?” 

“Ma’am can you help me find this?” 

“Miss, what is the price for this item?”  

“Do you know how to do your job?” 

“You’re an idiot!”  

Service with a Smile explores the world of customer service, a job industry that is 25% of the job market within the United States [1]. This work displays the dynamic struggles from not only bombastic customers taking on the struggling employees but also the restrictive guidelines, metrics, and expectations that upper management uses to bind and cause unnecessary anxiety. Upon closer inspection, the garbled-up words from various interactions with customers to the cryptic correspondence between employer and employee weaves a disjointed tale of ill-timing and uncouth treatment from all kinds of individuals. A snake, an octopus, and a fox, once human customers but now seeking to satisfy their own ends, are now trying to control the struggling customer service employees with their tactical advantage. 

[1] William Lawhorn, “Customer Service Skills: Occupational employment, outlook, and wages,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2018.