Today has been a pointed reminder that the customer is most definitely not always right. I can’t begin to stress how much I hate this notion, especially right now.
If you buy something, is it reasonable to expect your purchase to be in good shape? I’d say yes. Got no problem with that. Having said that, if I order something, collect it, and wait over a week before opening it, is it fair to kick up a storm if the item isn’t up to scratch? if you work in an industry which involves fitting items and is time sensitive, is it common sense to check out the items you will be working with?
It’s unfortunate when something arrives in a bad condition, but please remember folks, it’s not the store’s fault (even though the store is expected to put the problem right). We don’t have the time to check every last product we receive, and no quality control process in the world can check every product that leaves the production line. That’s not a fair expectation, so customers, snap out of that one.
Enough already!
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I hate working with customers. I have done it for a far too long and so many are unreasonable.
Sadly this is my experience too – bad ideas about what customer service should be have infiltrated our society.
I’ve worked with some of the worst customers in the world… I used to write web content for lawyers & law firms. They don’t know how web content is created or read by potential clients online, but they know that they’re right & you’re wrong.
I’ve found that being so calm & repeating yourself, being overly sweet, & just waiting for them to finish blowing their top (I had to take an hour long call from one to do so) has worked wonders. But, then again, sometimes in retail people just want to beat up on someone they deem “below them.” So they may not finish blowing their top… but they’ll either get pissed at your calm & f*** off, or they’ll stop being over-the-top because your calm makes them feel ridiculous. Either way… works pretty well.
If all else fails, read up on http://www.notalwaysright.com. It has made me feel much better after those rough days. LOL
Not Always Right is a fantastic site, though some of the stories shock even me – I can’t believe how ignorant, offensive and rude some customers will be in pursuit of something.
On top of the experience I wrote about yesterday, another one cropped up in the afternoon – in fairness this wasn’t the customer’s fault – but her attitude wasn’t helpful in the least.
The fitters who were carrying out their project on our behalf declared they needed more stuff to complete the project. In fact, it seems they were aware of this before the job started, and on the third day of the job this was logged with someone at the office that is supposed to manage these projects for us. Unfortunately, nothing was actioned, the project was due to finish today, and yesterday the customer kept phoning literally every two minutes, wanting to speak to me about it. I happened to be with another customer at first, but the first customer demanded (yes, demanded) that I deal with her and put aside anything else I was doing. She even expected me to stay late after work to deal with this (because naturally, the people I’d need to speak to will be staying late as well). I can understand the situation wasn’t of her making, but as with all customers, she needs to understand my powers, as I sit within a retail store, are limited. I cannot work miracles.
The NotAlwaysRight stories don’t often shock me, but I’m a terrible cynic who can believe that humanity can stoop to do awful things for very little reason/reward.
I’m not sure what field you work in (some sort of construction retail store? if you’d rather that remain private, I understand 100%, I’m just trying to understand the story!), but it sure sounds like the project workers dropped the ball. Then the office worker dropped the ball. You did not drop any balls, but she was demanding you pick up the dropped balls & start juggling to her satisfaction. It’s ridiculous! People need to realize that a delay in events don’t mean the end of the world (unless, of course, it’s a delay in preventing the nuclear launch codes from getting into Trump’s teeny-tiny hands).