Quote on Customer Service

"We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better."
-Jeff Bezos

Within emotional labor, a lot of what customer service interaction is involves pleasing the customers. Many research has been done as to identify the benefits of “service with a smile.” Although it might not greatly aid the working employee, it does help the overall business profit and run smoothly. So while there may be health cost to individual workers, the function of emotional labor works in favor of business, and each aspect of that business must play their part. So if that means being the best host necessary to help the job profit, then that’s what this quote reflects shall be done.

Emotional Labor & Making CUSTOMERS Happy.

One of the most vital parts of working emotional labor jobs involves serving customers as best as possible. Many businesses implement the “service with a smile” requirement, which seeks to provide customers with the most delightful interactions. This gives it a sense of “the customer is king,” and for each employee it is important to give off this message in order to uphold business reputation and to keep customers coming back.
Although this clip is entertaining, it also exaggerates the feelings of employees and management who work hard to maintain “service with a smile.” We see the employee turn to speak to the customer politely, yet when he turns around to interact with his co-workers, we are shown his use of acting (surface or deep acting). In reality many customers are unaware of the employees true emotions, as well as the interactions behind the scenes. Another interesting point the video expresses is the different levels of stress the employees were subjected to from the owner to the manager to the employees, all in order to fulfill “service with a smile.”

Benefits of smiling

One of my favorite comedians is Gabriel Iglesias. I cannot think of a time where I watched any one of his specials without smiling. He is too hilarious and really is able to capture the audience's attention with his positive display of emotions through his gestures, authentic smiles and sounds. Early on in the semester we learned through lecture and the ted talks video that smiling may potentially heap many benefits such as reducing stress, longevity and better health. If this is case then I would definitely recommend watching Gabriel Iglesias to help get your dosage of smiling for the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sijAbpgmaXU

Metro

I went to Metro and when I walked in with my friends, the young employees looked at me and did not speak. I thought about our class because they werent being friendly or trying to make a sale. When I got to the back of the store there was an older employee who spoke to me and said hello and if I needed anything. The fact that she was so nice encouraged me to by something in the store. As i left the store I thought "Does age affect how much the person uses emotional labor, and does emotional labor affect sales?"

D&D

I was at the Dunkin Donuts and the employee was a women. While on the line I notices that she did not focus as much on the female customers the way she did with the male customers. It made me wonder if the fact that the customers were females affected the way she was with customers.

Welcome to Wells Fargo

My brother is an employee at Wells Fargo Bank, and over break I went to visit him. I found it interesting to see that his name tag read "Spanish" underneath his name. At Wells Fargo, one of the values they uphold is diversity so that customers from all over can feel welcomed when they walk into the bank. Just the simple fact of a customer knowing that the employee speaks the same language as they do sends a mutual understanding of their cultural background. With the "Service with a Smile" aspect, employees must relate well to their customers in order to get higher return rates. With my brother's name tag indicating that he speaks Spanish, a particular target market is being reached. Customers feel more comfortable speaking their native language when asking an employee for help. This also makes the corporation seem more well-rounded and aware of its community of customers. So next time you walk into a bank, try and look for the employee's name tag and see if it reads "Hablo Espanol."

Greetings

I have a friend who used to work at a clothing store and when anyone called the store she had to answer by saying a phrase like "Hi, were having a great day here" or something similar to that and I guess the purpose was to make even callers, potential customers or former customers, think that the store was friendly and that going there would be a positive experience. One thing that does is make the atmosphere of the store and the employees themselves seem both friendly and positive and therefore a better shopping experience then other stores. And because it was over the phone the smile was irrelevant. It was all in the voice and the tone and how sincere that could be made to sound, as opposed to the visual image. So the smile wasn't what conveyed positive experience, just the voice.

Routine Interactions vs. Customized interactions

After a couple days being back in Maryland, my family elected going to Ledo Pizza. (Pizzeria chain throughout MD and VA). When we go to Ledo's we normally ask if Hannah is around (Hannah has waited on us many times in the past and we know that at this particular Ledo's there are only a handful of waiters/waitresses that are genuinely friendly. This time around I made a note of this one particular employee that held more of the same routine with the people that she waited on. It was more of the blunt, emotionless "What can I get you?" Seeing the differences in the styles of how these two employees waited on their customers, reminded me of something I learned in Grandey and Diamond (2009). Deep acting is more likely to arise from customized interactions with the public and surface acting is more likely to arise from more routine encounters that require little to no motivation.

Arby's Commitment to Happiness

So over the break I was looking out for examples of Emotional Labor or anything else related that applied from our class and I took this picture of an Arby's food wrapper. I know it isn't exactly related, but it made me think about it and Arby's pledge is "each and every person who walks through our doors walks out feeling better" and if customers leave feeling unsatisfied or unhappy that "we'll fix it." So Arbys and their employees are committed to making the customer happier, presumably both through the food and service transaction. But altering the mood of the customer to make their dinning experience better involves in part both Emotional Contagion and the effects of positive displays of emotion discussed by the Tsai article.

The Cute, Old Lady in Findlay

In Findlay Commons Dining Hall there are a variety of different employees. Of course, mostly college students work there, but a few adults and even older adults work there as well. Over the past semester of school I've become familiar with the employees that work in Findlay, particularly one woman. I do not know her name but she is an older woman, probably in her sixties, and she always is smiling. I absolutely love her. Every single time I see her working there she calls everyone honey or sugar, asks about your day, and even gives you extra food. Her amicable relationship with the other employees is very noticeable as well. On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, however, are the college students that work there. Don't get me wrong, some of them are very friendly, but some of them just plainly could care less about their job. They are rude, barely look at you, and sometimes don't even give you what you asked for. This instance reminds me of the idea of deep and surface acting ( Grandey, 2003). The older woman is most definately deep acting- she loves her job and the kids she serves. When she has a conversation with someone about their classes and their day, she means it. Whereas the other employees who drag their feet around and barely smile, hate everything about their job. When they do manage to smile or say "Have a good day", it is completely surface acting and nothing else.

Accept Customer Incivility, It is a part of your job!

A few weeks ago I was in Jimmy John's on College Avenue and I could not help but to notice this sign hanging above the register. I asked the cash register worker about the sign and he explained to me that anytime a customer is upset about anything the employees are required to follow this guideline. The phrase, "The customer is always right" popped into my mind. I am almost 100% certain that every single store or company that offers some type of service follows this motto in some way or in other. I know that I had to follow this motto in my three years of work at ice cream stores. No mattter what, the customer is always right. What about circumstances such as the Safeway Case, where female workers actually brought suit against their employers after being forced to make eye contact with patrons for three seconds and smile even though the male patrons were making suggestive comments which made the work environment stressful. If the same method that Jimmy John's uses in terms of customer dissatisfaction and how employees must always take the blame was applied in the same matter to the Safeway employees then this means the employees would basically be held responsible for not continuing to "lead" the male patrons on and have to apologize to them. Imagine the negative emotional effects that would occur. In my opinion, employees should take responsiblity and apologize when customers are not happy with the product that they came for, but in some instances, this takes emotional labor too far.

Career Pages/Requirements

While I was online looking at restaurant websites, I decided that I was going to check out the sections about employment on their websites. On the California Tortilla website, there was a tab called "Fun Factor". This page had a list of many different reasons why California Tortilla is a fun place to go. However, one thing on the list stuck out to me the most. The second thing on the list said "We've got spunky cashiers!". This reminded me a lot of what we've been talking about in class because they are using the personalities of their employees to draw customers in to their store and to show that their cashiers and customer service is something that makes California Tortilla a fun place to go. The second restaurant I found was American Tap Room, a popular restaurant where I live. On their career page, they had a list of requirements that are shown in the picture below. The things that stood out to me the most were that it said you had to have a great personality and a can do attitude as well as two years of hospitality experience. The personality requirements made me think about our class because some of the articles we read in class talked about how businesses hire people based off of their personality. It was kind of surprising to me that they had to have two years of hospitality experience because I've never seen a requirement like that before. I actually thought that it was a good requirement because in service jobs I feel like a lot of employees do not know how to deal with their customers in the best way and the hospitality experience could help the employees have better job performance and financial success in the company. The last website I found was the Dunkin Donuts website. Their career page says they are looking for hardworking, friendly, team-oriented people, who would thrive in the fast-paced, fun-paced world of Dunkin' Donuts. I found it really interesting that they mentioned that the people they were looking for needed to be team-oriented because it is important to get along with your fellow employees. Also, they mentioned that it is a fast-paced service meaning that they need employees that can do well under pressure with long lines and complaining customers without being stressed out by using surface acting and deep acting. Another really interesting thing they mentioned is that they said they are committed to making the employee feel important and part of a team. I think that a lot of companies overlook this like in the Safeway case. In that specific case, the employee did not feel important and did not feel like a part of a team and I think that having both of those ensured is an important thing that management should ensure.

When Employees Know a Customer Will Return

Over Thanksgiving break, my friends and I decided to have breakfast together at our usual diner so that we could catch up. All of us have been there before since it's pretty much the only one we have in town, which is also why we all knew our waiter. Because of this, when our food came out, our waiter joked around asking "Who ordered the Parmesan chicken with fries?" It was 10 in the morning, so clearly none of us did and as we began to correct him he showed us that he was holding only pancakes. The waiter was comfortable enough to attempt a joke with us since we are frequent customers.
This reminds me of what we have learned in class about how in most service jobs, the goal of the employee is to get customers to return back to their business. This infers that there was customer satisfaction the first time receiving this service and an appropriate atmosphere was presented. This was shown in Tsai (2001) as well as others. But who knows, maybe we just always go there because it's the closest, cheapest diner around. These factors play a huge part, especially for broke freshman year college kids!

Smiles Around the World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93GKn68VNoI

One of my favorite television shows is Ellen Degeneres' talk show. I love watching it because her jokes and pranks always makes me laugh and I know many other people feel the same. The attached video clip from one of her shows really reminded me of this class. While interviewing the women of the USA Hockey team, they said that the image of Ellen's smiling face on the flag (pictured here) was received positively by people from countries all around the world. As one team member stated, the team met many people at the Olympics that would "light up" whenever they saw Ellen's face on their flag. This is the exact definition of emotional contagion that we discussed in class, and Ellen did not even have to be physically present to share her smile. Ellen's positive attitude on her show, to her employees, and viewers has helped to spread her message of kindness and happiness around the world. As was mentioned in the Ted Talks video that we watched at the beginning of the year, the more we smile and the bigger our smiles, the longer and healthier our lives will be. If this is true, then the world is definitely better off watching Ellen, or at least smiling.

Maybe Some Managers are Setting a Bad Example

Yesterday I came across this article and noticed that service with a smile went to the leeway in this case. Reading through the article I thought of a few things that relate to EL and our class in general. Keep these in mind as you read:

- Could an increased sense of autonomy for employees negatively effect customers?
- Are employees less likely to "act" friendly toward certain groups of people (in this instance a gay couple)?
- Does a manager showing negative displays and behavior express to employees that such displays are okay?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/united-airlines-faggot-billy-canu-266707

Job autonomy at work

Over Thanksgiving break I traveled to Cape Cod with one of my classes, and one of our days was spent in Provincetown, the tip of the Cape and the hot spot during the tourist season. In the off season thought, it's practically a ghost town. Nearly every shop is closed and the only people in town are those that live there. A few of us stopped in a coffee shop called "Joe" which was independently owned by, well, Joe. We walked in and there were only 4 or 5 customers, sitting at different tables, yet talking to each other across the room. It's easy to tell that in the off season, everyone knows everyone in Provincetown, and everyone is friends. A customer's dog was walking around the shop, and it was a very friendly atmosphere. Because Joe owns his own shop, there's no corporation telling him he has to smile and be courteous to customers, but he does realize that those help his business be successful. He was very friendly and genuine while dealing with us, and brightened up even more when one of my classmates said that he was a barista at Saints here in State College. They talked about coffee for a few minutes, and we all had a genuinely enjoyable service experience with Joe, leaving the shop with bigger drinks than we ordered and free cookies all around.

According to the findings in most of our studies, Joe could potentially be experiencing some negative effects of the emotional labor he's performing, so I asked him about it. He said that during the summer, his job is tough on him, and he welcomes the end of the day with open arms. because he often does get frustrated and burned out. He doesn't like dealing with tourists because nearly all of the time, they're who cause issues. In the off season however, he loves his job. He deals with his friends on a daily basis and work doesn't feel like work. He has service relationships with almost all of his customers, instead of the service encounters he deals with in the summer.

I think because of his complete job autonomy, Joe is able to lessen the negative effects of emotional labor. Chances are, if he encounters a rude tourist, he'll never see them again, and they won't even really have a chance to return to his shop anyway, so he doesn't see the point in going to ridiculous lengths to make them happy if they're being rude. He can basically act however he wants to those tourists, and if they're polite to him, he'll be polite back.

I think Joe and his situation show the positives of job autonomy. It leads to a better experience for no only the employee, as shown by Joe, but for the customer as well, which I can certainly vouch for. I would go back to Joe's without a doubt, and I think that customer loyalty is one of the main goals of emotional labor. So even though he's not required to follow any "service with a smile" rules, Joe is certainly doing his job right.

A Different Thought

I found this funny picture and thought I would share it with everyone! Most of the signs and ads we see in restaurants or public places endorse the customer being right and having the power in a service encounter, while the employee bows down and does as instructed. I read Marina’s post and I began to think about the opposite point of view: what happens when the employee has all the power and the customer is put in the difficult situation? Understandably, one would assume he/she could leave the store and not shop there again. However, what if they were not able to easily escape the situation? Would their personalities influence their actions?

In class, we read articles about personalities such as extroversion, neuroticism, and self-monitoring (Hopp et al (2010); Bono and Vey (2007)) and how they effect an employees’ physiological state as well as their job performance. I began to question what neurotic customers would do in situations when the employee became overpowering and out of control. Would they just duck their heads and walk away? Would an extroverted individual become enraged and fight back due to their strong personality? Would a self-monitoring person be polite and simply try to tough it out? Even though further studies examining customers rather than employees might result in similar data, I still think it would be worthwhile to study to further understand the customer’s perspective.

Furthermore, the studies examined in class examined surface and deep acting (Grandey 2003) and the detrimental affects they had on employees. On the contrary, how would a customer act when they were put in an exceptionally stressful situation, much like what an employee has to endure on a daily basis? I would find it interesting to study the physiological effects of deep and surface acting of customers throughout a service transaction. Additionally, in the Hopp et al (2010) article, service employees were asked to deal with a rude and angry customer. Half of them were asked to be friendly (emotional dissonance) towards the customer and the other half were told they could show authentic feelings and act in whichever way they deemed necessary (no emotional dissonance). I would be inclined to know more about “display rules” and emotional dissonance experienced by customers when dealing with an unruly employee.

I thought it was interesting to wonder about the relationship from a different perspective, rather than explicitly from an employee.

Return on Relationship

Just last week I discussed with my parents and friends over some possible career options, namely in the field of banking and finance. I was shown this video that described the nature of the jobs within the high-end financial services industry that fascinates me.

http://vimeo.com/31885121

The service relationship Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) is promoting as part of the firm's service packages is relevant to the Grandey and Diamond's (2010) study on temporal relationship between the employee and client. What these top financial firms are placing a stronger emphasis now, than ever before, is the relationship with clients on top of industrial knowledge and expertise they provide. We can regard this change as commodification of service relationship or as BAML called it "return on relationship". It is a service that go beyond the simple listening and understanding of the clients' demands. It is a continual employee-to-client interactions that are carefully tailored to each client's needs and expectations for the long run, or a lifetime to some. This is the type of service qualities that stand out in the high-end financial service industry and justify the high fees they are able to incur. Gutek (1999) suggested that there is a link between greater familiarity in relationships to customer satisfaction, which as we all know, leads to profit (Pugh, 2001).

Whether such emotional labor demands place addition stress on employees is yet unknown, though Cote (2005) has suggested the long-term gains might be compensating enough to offset the energy costs. One thing we do know, there is a demand for such temporal relationship. Emotional labor is no longer simply the fabricating of emotions to deal with customers, it is about fostering relationships with strangers, who also happen to be your customers.

That is the new currency in global business: return on relationship.

An article i found when trying to re-find my article in my last post's draft. http://www.businesstrainingworks.com/Customer-Service/21-Tips-for-Excellent-Retail-Customer-Service.html

The article is from businesstrainingworks.com and is meant to provide helpful tips and advice to employees of EL jobs to improve costumer service performance. Like my last post this article also talks about Chick-fil-a some but only as an example. What is of particular interest however, is the list of 21 things to do or not to do. Of them, 14 are instructions on what we have talked about as display rules, i.e. smile when greeting a costumer. This stresses how important this particular website, dedicated to training employees, finds at least surface acting on the part of the employee. Also interesting is tip number 1 which states smile when greeting a customer in person and on the phone (and yes they can tell if you are smiling over the telephone!) Evidently this organization has recognized from experience the effect of facial feedback, that smiling while on the phone can actually alter how you sound as well as appear. businesstrainingworks.com also suggests that the employee learn body language. This relates to our in class discussions on emotional intelligence. The site would seem to suggest that high EI is beneficial in an EL job setting. 

Validation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao&feature=related

I believe a lot of you have seen this video before, but I still want to say something about it.

When I first sat in this class and we talked about the service with a smile, I thought about this video. Actually I forgot the name of the video and I just tried my best to find it online. The video somehow changed my view of EL. I don't think all the employees do surface or deep acting while they are working. There must be some people who really love to share there positive attitude to others, though they are in different status or situations. That's why EL is easier than someone than others. The truth is that people who originally positive in work receive high quality of feedback so that they got more chances of being success. As the man in the video, at first he just a person who validate for free parking card. He showed his smile and had little conversations with customers, which made his customers also feel passionate to life. As a result, he got a growing number of customers. However, after he was hurt by the woman that he loved, his negative attitude annoyed his customers and they didn't want to come back. The connection here with EL is that positive emotion display induce positive customer reaction so that improve the consequence of companies.

This video is really impressive so that i can clearly remember almost every detail about it. It teaching people how to face others no matter who you are. Everyone can learn from that. Though it is not a commercial ad, employees and managers can learn how to tread their customers. Being positive never let things down.

More Than A Make-Up Lady

Over break, I went to the local mall to purchase some make-up before I returned to school. I specifically went on Saturday around 3 P.M. so I could see my favorite employee, Tony. I have been getting my make-up exclusively from her since I was about 12 years old. Since then, we have built a strong relationship to the extent that she knows all my color shades and what freebies I like (haha :) ). This strong relationship and mutual understanding allows the encounter to run quicker and smoother. However, Tony is not just a make-up lady to me, she is like a big sister I have always wanted. When I see her, she asks about Penn State, my brothers, and what my parents are up to. I often talk to her about problems with friends or schoolwork and she always knows what to say to brighten my day. Because I have repeatedly gone to her over the years, we have become good friends, which has further ensured my recurring business. Even though the mall is enormous, it is nice to see her and know there is a familiar face amongst it all.

This service relationship is relevant to the Grandey and Diamond (2010) article. In particular, my relationship with Tony is relevant to the article's section dealing with temporal relationships. A service relationship is defined as "repeated employee-customer contact, mutual identification of employee and customer, and a shared history" (p. 198). These service relationships allow customers to receive desired service and for providers to gain repeated business, tips, recommendations, and other benefits (2010). Moreover, service relationships provide knowledge of customer expectations, which are gathered over time, and enhance role clarity and better quality service (2010). My service encounters run efficiently with Tony because we have built an understanding as to what I need in terms of make-up, on top of our relationship and friendship.

Grocery Store Trip

Over break, I went to my local grocery story to gather some last minute items for Thanksgiving. As I waited in line to check out in the express lane, I could not help but become impatient as the customer in front of me was taking much longer than necessary to check out. I leaned in a little to see what the problem was, as I assumed there might have been a mistake with pricing or whatnot. However, that was not the case, as the employee and customer were simply carrying on a conversation. Normally this would not have bothered me, but I had assumed this would have been a quick trip, especially since I was in the express lane. After 15 minutes of waiting, the customer left and I was finally able to check out. At this point, I was annoyed and just wanted to leave. The employee was polite and went through the regular “script,” but I did not make conversation and quickly paid as I gathered my bags. As I was leaving, I noticed the employee had been very receptive of my emotions throughout the process. She was able to see I was in a rush and tailored her actions appropriately by quickly checking me out. I would say she had a substantial amount of emotional intelligence, as she was able to understand my emotional state (frustration and impatience) and then act accordingly (quick check out with little conversation). If she did not respond properly, by talking more and making the process even longer, I would have become even more upset. This encounter reminded me of the Côté et al (2010) article, which observed how emotional intelligence would lead to greater well-being, greater income, and higher socioeconomic status. Being able to know what the customer wants will lead to better service for the customer, which in turn would lead to more tips for the employee.

Furthermore, this encounter reminded me of the Sutton and Rafaeli (1988) article, which studied how positive emotions can affect store pace. In my case, the more positive emotions the employee displayed, the longer the encounter was, which resulted in a slower store pace. Being in a slow paced check out line, when it should have been very quick, not only made me upset but also taught me to not to go to that checkout lane anymore. Seeing as this is not a commission run sales store, the employee and the store are not directly losing sales. However, if I was in a dinner, I might not go there again because the service was slow. My experience supports the results from the study, which claim the more positive emotions displayed by employees, the slower the store pace and greater loss of sales.

Have It Your Way, but don't get crazy

Almost everyone has heard Burger King's infamous motto, "Have it your way." The label posted here was put on the side of fast food cups and bags and reminded me of our class. Burger King's motto helps to promote the idea that the customer is always right, especially when Burger King calls the customer the "almighty ruler." Although this may be good for business; because customers feel they have many options to get anything that they want and be satisfied with their orders. However, it can also cause stress to the employees. If a customer isn't pleased with his/her order then the customer could feel that he/she is superior to the worker, potentially causing customer incivility. As we read in Sliter et al, customer incivility was positively related to emotional exhaustion. Burger King may have more satisfied customers, but could also have dissatisfied workers as a result.

Rest Stops

This Thanksgiving break I traveled a LOT. The longest trip in particular was to Durham, North Carolina. Stopping is my least favorite part of trips because it always adds a few minutes onto the trip, however it always seems to be necessary. I thought that being at rest stops with three other family members and myself would really slow us down, however due to the exceptional service, there was a never a lengthy line or a long wait for the food.

What I previously called exceptional service is the part I find interesting. Not one single service employee smiled at me. None of them tried to have a conversation with me. They didn't even pretend to be happy to see me....

And I loved it! This is exactly the kind of service I want at a place like this. When I am stopping at a rest stop, its most likely because I am traveling a far distance and I have become hungry. So, when I finally do find a place to pull over and get some food, I do not want to be put on a pedestal via customer service, I want my food and I WANT IT NOW! It seemed that no "service with a smile" mentality was instilled in these employees and it suited me just fine. In this case, efficiency takes precedence, and customer service needs to be put on the back burner. This is one instance where a smile did not effect whether or not I had a pleasant encounter, but making my food with speed and efficiency did.

an ad in the bus station

This picture is an ad for Web English Education in Dalian, China. The picture was post in the board beside the bus stop in the city. I think this smile not only refers to employees (teachers and faculties in Web), but also refers to the customers (students in Weibo for English study). In China, people also focus more on service with a smile now than before. This company also emphasis that they could offer high quality teaching with positive attitude and hope their students also gain happy experiences during English study. I studied in Web for two months, and their teachers and faculties indeed service with a smile so that I was very glad to study there. Through my observation before, this ad was very attractive and many people noticed the board when they are waiting for the bus. When EL combine smile, the service becomes much more powerful and attractive.

I saw this sign in the cold stone on campus and it reminded me of the display rules we discussed in class. Cold stone is especially known for their employees singing and dancing for tips, but even the customers can feel the psychological climate of the establishment. Check this video out I would totally tip them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNTy4n37XE&feature=related

Delta Ad Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJIIZI7wFZo

This video is a commercial of one of Delta Airlines old ad campaigns. Their slogan was "we love to fly, and it shows". It says "a smile, a tone of voice, and the willingness to try, when you love to fly, it shows." This slogan shows that the advertisers really wanted to make customers think that Delta is committed to customer service and service with a smile. I also thought that this tied into the articles that had information and studies on flight attendants and their service interactions. I feel like a lot of transportation companies have slogans that have to do with their great service since there are so many competing for their customers.

This billboard was in Portland, OR.  Clearly, they are saying there is no charge for your emotional benefits from the service at this bank.  Of course, since they are paying employees to make you feel good, that may not be true...