300 Seconds: Do you hear what I hear?
Take 300 seconds today and sit or stand in a remote corner of your bookstore. What do you hear?
- Do you have the right music/radio station playing? Or was it changed during the cleaning session last night?
- Is there static coming from that back speaker?
- Can you hear the staff? Are they helping a customer or chatting with each other?
- If they’re helping a customer, are they relaying correct information?
- Is that fan making a weird noise?
- Is that light bulb buzzing? (Don’t change it yet. That will be tomorrow’s 300 Seconds task.)
This is one of those “customer perspective” exercises. We might not realize that cookbook sales have dropped because the static coming from the back speaker is so annoying, customers do not want to browse. Or parents leave because they are turned-off by staff gossip that can be heard all the way back in the children’s section. By purposely spending time listening, you’ll be able to tune-in to the nuances and sounds of the store that otherwise might have blended in with the day.
