Customer Service - just don't say no

The Bible says: "Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." (Eph 4:29)

It struck me that Jesus wants the default attitude of his followers to be positive, and to leave the critical responses up to him. (He tells us elsewhere not to worry, that he will judge.)

These are hard instructions for me to follow, because I am good at evaluating, and like to point out when others need correction. But he is the Boss, and I am just his counter worker - like this illustration about McDonald's from Seth Godin's blog:

"When I was in business school, we did the McDonald's case. Part of our preparation was to go to the nearby McDonald's with a stopwatch and clipboard. We walked in the door and stood just long enough to get noticed. Boy did those guys hop to attention. Then we went to another McDonald's and performed the following experiment (please, please do not try this at home, just take my word for it). We ordered a milkshake and a Big Mac. Ate half the Big Mac. Drank half the milkshake. We put the Big Mac remainder into the milkshake cup and went to the counter, 'I'm sorry, I can't drink this shake, there's a Big Mac in it.' They gave us a new one.

Why?

Because McDonald's didn't want counter people making decisions about who to say 'no' to. It was worth the expense of humoring idiots like my study group for the brand power of knowing that counter people didn't alienate people on a sliding scale."