The Pharmacy Chick

I have come to accept that more people know me (or know OF me) than I realize. Pharmacy Chick has worked in the same place for a dozen years. In fact she and her staff pharmacist are the only pharmacists this place has ever known. To complicate matters, I live, work, worship and socialize in the same neighborhood as I work. My “commute” amounts to 2 songs on the radio, and thats if I miss every light on the way there. I almost always at least SEE somebody I recognize every time I go out to shop.

While there are obvious advantages to this arrangement, there are disadvantages also. It seems that almost every work day, somebody comes up and asks me “Are you Pharmacy chick? Mrs Thwitpick told me you could help me” (or variations on that theme). It brings to the forefront of my mind that there are people who come to my pharmacy already “knowing” me to some degree based on whatever the Thwitpicks of the world have told them. I should be grateful that if somebody is coming in to speak to me specifically, they probably have a positive impression of me before they have met me. That leaves it up to me to make sure that I live up to that expectation…and I only get one chance…

The problem is that I dont always wanna be Miss Merry Sunshine. Who doesn’t wake up any given morning in a crappy mood? You know what I mean. You’ve been there; didn’t sleep well the previous night, fought with the spouse, had some personal crisis, dog peed on the floor just as you were leaving…who knows what it is, it could be some earlier customer that ruined the day.

All I know is that time and time again that I have been surprised to find only 1 degree of separation between two people I never would have linked before.

If I dont treat Mrs Thwitpicks friend right, its likely that I’ll lose Mrs Thwitpick also. Sometimes I don’t find out the connection between 2 people until AFTER the first interaction. It serves as a stern reminder to me that ya never know WHO KNOWS WHO!

Tags: customers, personal life, pharmacy life | |