Question about usage of names and social convention

[Jessika Aguilar]

I have always been an enormous fan of using "ma'am" or "sir" in commercial transactions, going both ways.  I have several years experience working as a fast food and grocery cashier/clerk and I just have to offer a perspective from the opposite side of the counter.  The management generally forces you, or at least strongly encourages, you to use the customer's name, if known, because its supposed to foster a sense of folksy, neighborly friendliness that, in theory, should inspire customer loyalty.  It was something you could actually get in trouble for if you didn't do it, because its bad customer service to their mind.
On the flip side of the coin, as a former customer service worker, I hated people calling me by my first name, in something that inevitably went like this "Hi!, uh...*obvious stare at my name tag* Jessika".  I realize they were trying to respect me and make me feel like a human being but it always struck me as overly familiar, and ended up sounding really disrespectful. Particularly because I was already in a subservient role, it seemed to add a note of condescension toward the help.
It all comes from businesses' attempt to simulate this small town, mom and pop, we're all friends atmosphere.  I could never see why customer service theory tries so hard to pretend a business transaction isn't what it is.  You don't have to be someone's best friend to sell them a chicken sandwich.  I think its possible to do customer service in a polite, efficient and professional manner without all the hokey attempts at generating a connection that isn't there.  Just had to add my two-cents - this is a topic that always received a lot of attention among the workers when I was in the business. 



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