How 'bout having the customer service staff members that are manning the checpoints telling us pax politely and with a smile when arriving at the WTMD what to do -- like they do in so many airports around the world?

That surely beats having it screamed to my face by some grumpy customer service employee.

Y'know, after living among other people for a while, I have noticed that among that which does not work is to tell people to "calm down" or "hurry up" or "get moving" -- most will, just out of spite and often unconsiously, do exactly the opposite. We don't like to be told what to do -- we like to be allowed to chose what to do.

Ever had a verbal fight with anyone and have the other party tell you to "callm down" (or a variation thereof)? Did that make you calmer, or just more angry at the other party for trying to tell you what to do? I'm almost certain that you didn't "calm down".

Law enforcement officers (Some? Most? All? I do not know how such are trained in the US, but I bet it's similar to elsewhere) learn about creating "voluntary compliance": getting the person in front of you to want to comply with your wishes, rather than to have to rely on packing heat. The customer service staff that the TSA has deployed at the WTMDs would do well by learning that too.

Example-time....

I flew out of ORY a while back, in my usual professional outfit, which involves a belt with a large metal belt-buckle.

In the US, the TSA customer service staff usually bark "Belt must come off, now", which leaves me somewhat iffed and unhappy since control is taken over my possessions and my person, and I am left with no choise.

Well, in ORY, the person at the checkpoint said "If you think your belt-buckle will make the detector sound, then you're welcome to take it off and put it through the X-ray, and save an extra trip back and forth, or if you're sure it won't make the detector beep, you can keep it on."

Guess what? In ORY, they gave me two options: to either chose to keep the belt and risk it beeping and the subsequent frisk/double-pass/SSSSS, or to chose to pass it through the X-ray". And so, taking the belt off was my choise and I felt good and even thankful that the lady helped me avoid hazzle.

In the US, my "choise" would be "do you want to fly today?" -- which is actually not a choise but a threat (we all know the difference between "threat" and "choise", yes?).

The final outcome (that my dangerous belt-buckle was X-rayed) was the same, but I as a PAX felt better in ORY, more willing to comply and to smile at the staff at the Xray and the WTMD and in general to "not make their life miserable" and do as they wanted quickly. I didn't time it, but I sure felt like the line was moving very fast and that I got through security in record-time and with no grump....something I've never noticed with TSA customer service agents involved.

This is basic "dealing-with-other-people" stuff, and my doctorate is not in psychology but in "something with computers. And since we all know that computer-people are not known for having the best people-skills in the world, if I can learn/understand the above, then so can everybody else....Especially those dealing with customers (including the customer service agents that the TSA employs).

So, you asked what I suppose was a serious question in how the TSA customer service agents should communicate with PAX. I've tried to answer, to justify my answer and to give an example of a place where what I suggest is succesfully deployed.