"The Customer Is Always Right"

[cranberry]

I was in Vegas with my wife a number of years ago and we went to a casino restaurant. The server was nice and started with polite chit chat, which was fine. But then he started getting in a full conversation and we learned waaaaaaaay too much about his life. Then I kid you not, in the middle of that conversation, he just sat down at the table next to me without asking and continued talking. I rarely complain to management about a server, but that guy went way beyond the pale.

He probably thought talking about his life story would garner sympathy and ensure a larger tip.

 

[Maxperson]

He probably thought talking about his life story would garner sympathy and ensure a larger tip.

Maybe, but sitting down at the table without asking? That was bad. We didn't go there to eat dinner with him.

 

[FrogReaver]

Reading your comments: you have not worked in retail or only for short term long time ago, right? You are confusing here a clerk treating you fairly and respectfully with a company designing their processes and guidelines.

Not directly. I once approved credit applications real time for retail stores. I would deal directly with their customers and store reps when they would call in on an application that had a processing issue.

There are legitimate things customers just don’t get and just wont accept. You saw that a lot with credit.

But theres alot of things that aren’t.

If the company policy is designed to screw the customer then repeating the company policy with a smile and maybe a sorry is alot like saying ‘sorry, go screw your self’ with a smile, whether you intended it that way or not.

Speaking of, since when did the CS rep stop being a representative of the company?

If you wait in checkoutline with a service problem (although your problem ofc can occur at checkout spontaneously) you are in the wrong line. You get sent to service line because a) customers behind you are waiting for their checkout. b) the clerk at checkout tries to do their "first level support" and will soon reach their limit. Service line usually has training specified for that and time for that.

I’m talking about something like noticing you were overcharged when seeing the receipt after paying for the item. Especially after you waited in a long line to start with.

Waiting for a manager for refund is also not a lack of respect by the clerk, its company guideline that they are not authorized to give you a refund (because company doesnt trust them). Manager is not a stand-by job, they do other stuff too, so you need to wait for a moment.

It is a lack of respect by the manager when not coming to you promptly.

These are structural problems you have with the stores and restaurants, but not the clerks being unrespectful to you. If you react to them like they do this to you personally out of disrespect, I am not surprised you get snide sideremarks from them.

Here’s the thing, unless they actually do something personal I don’t take it as personal. It can still be disrespectful though.

When I have an issue here are some of the disrespectful things that are done.

Giving lame excuses - ‘we are understaffed’. Then hire more people. It’s not my fault you didn’t. At one time I would have even accepted this as an explanation, but it’s been so overused and abused.

Lying to me - ‘I’ll call you back later when we’ve resolved the issue’ never calls.

Not valuing my time - takes many forms.

Etc.

 

[Theory of Games]

TL;DR: We all have jobs, bosses, customers, etc. Be nice to people who you believe are temporarily in your 'power'. Mainly because it's the right thing to do. But if you need a practical reason to do so, because at some point--unless you're a billionaire-- you'll be on the other end of it

Even the rich can get it

 

[Morrus]

Giving lame excuses - ‘we are understaffed’. Then hire more people. It’s not my fault you didn’t.

This is not an excuse to abuse the worker.

 

[FrogReaver]

This is not an excuse to abuse the worker.

Never said it was…

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Giving lame excuses - ‘we are understaffed’. Then hire more people. It’s not my fault you didn’t.

Who controls whether they can hire?

The company.

Not them. Not even their department, usually. The company. It's fair to politely point out that this is leading to unacceptable issues with service, and ideally, if possible you demonstrate this by no longer using that company, but there's no upside to attacking individual CS for this! All you're doing is making their day and probably yours worse!

And remember the calls are typically being recorded and/or overheard by supervisors, and if they hear the CS saying "They won't let us hire more staff" or otherwise implicitly or directly criticising the company, they're probably going to get in trouble or fired. So they aren't even allowed to be honest with you.

Lying to me - ‘I’ll call you back later when we’ve resolved the issue’ never calls.

This is a more real problem imo, because there are definitely companies where I've talked to them enough and understand their procedures enough to know when this is a lie or at least a wildly unrealistic gratuitous promise. And I don't think it's just procedure that it's used to get out of having to give a more specific commitment re: resolution. I've also seen within companies some real variance on how honest it is.

Like, with my ISP, I had terrible problems for six months, and I got pretty familiar with the CS. One of them would always tell you he'd call back or text, and absolutely never would. He was not unhelpful, and booked engineers and stuff, but would he call you? Would he pass on any information to the engineers? Absolutely not. Despite him being the one to keep suggesting he would! Whereas another one of their CS, she was absolutely on it, and always reliably contacted me and passed info on to the right teams.

Either way though, does it help to be rude or mean? No. Obstinate can sometimes be required, but needs judgement and you need to be politely obstinate and realistic in your asks and to listen to what they say.

Most organisations are pretty keen to send out "Was this employee useful?" surveys too - so if you really think someone is doing a bad job, well, there's your opportunity. If an organisation doesn't send those out? Guess what - they probably just don't care about the level of service you're getting! So...

 

[FrogReaver]

Who controls whether they can hire?

The company.

Not them. Not even their department, usually. The company. It's fair to politely point out that this is leading to unacceptable issues with service, and ideally, if possible you demonstrate this by no longer using that company, but there's no upside to attacking individual CS for this! All you're doing is making their day and probably yours worse!

And remember the calls are typically being recorded and/or overheard by supervisors, and if they hear the CS saying "They won't let us hire more staff" or otherwise implicitly or directly criticising the company, they're probably going to get in trouble or fired. So they aren't even allowed to be honest with you.

Way too many loaded words being thrown around here. As if anyone is goin go to defend attacking someone else. And that’s what your accusing me of doing.

Either way though, does it help to be rude or mean? No. Obstinate can sometimes be required, but needs judgement and you need to be politely obstinate and realistic in your asks and to listen to what they say.

Right. That’s probably a better word for what I’m advocating for. And you are right that there’s a time and place for it, just as for most everything else.

Most organisations are pretty keen to send out "Was this employee useful?" surveys too - so if you really think someone is doing a bad job, well, there's your opportunity. If an organisation doesn't send those out? Guess what - they probably just don't care about the level of service you're getting! So...

Hah. Even the ones that do often don’t!

 

[Thomas Shey]

(My biggest current frustration here is that countless companies insist a chat window or some kind of form is the best and quickest way to get help, but in practice, they don't actually do anything unless you phone them! My main ISP is like this - the will do anything to make you use their form, but if you do, all you get is endless holding emails saying they need two business days to respond. Phone them? Engineer round next day!)

Interesting. I've actually found most companies that offer chat windows they're as, or more, productive than trying to make a phone call. I've spent immensely less time waiting on the former than the latter.

 

[FrogReaver]

Interesting. I've actually found most companies that offer chat windows they're as, or more, productive than trying to make a phone call. I've spent immensely less time waiting on the former than the latter.

The rep typically is allowed to handle multiple chats at a time.