Today I want to rant about the standards of customer service. I used to think that there was a quality level of customer service here is Oz. But now I see I was wrong. I am unsure if I just expected less of people back in the day or if people have gotten consistently ruder. Is it just me or does it seem like a hassle for people to do their jobs properly? I don't think I am asking to much when I expect a person in a store or restaurant to do their job as they were hired to do it.
Has anyone else been met with sighs of disdain when you ask someone if you can try something on in a change room? I mean, seriously, just give me the little numbered tag in be done with it. I'm not asking you to do much. I'm not asking your opinion on how I look (ie. lie and tell me I look fantastic), or to get me another size (although it would be nice if you offered once in a while), I bring my own posse to take care of stuff like that. All you have to do is give me the numbered tag. So what's with the attitude?
You go to a fast food drive through and they screw up your order. If you, god forbid, point out their mistake, you are met with rolling eyes and yet another sigh of disdain. These days you are really lucky to get an insincere "Sorry".
You go to a fast food drive through and they screw up your order. If you, god forbid, point out their mistake, you are met with rolling eyes and yet another sigh of disdain. These days you are really lucky to get an insincere "Sorry".
Look, I understand you have a crappy job, I have had them too, but it's not my fault that you are having a sh*t day. You are paid to smile and be nice to customers. Hence the customer service aspect of your customer service based role. So just do it. It's only for a few hours.
This revelation came to me a while ago when I was over in the UK and noticed how appalling the level of customer service is over there. Apparently it is normal for the shop assistants to finish their private, non work related conversations with each other before even considering serving the line of customers that now extends out the door. Over there, customer service is one of those made up words, like gobbledock or punctual trains. No one knows what it means. I remember thinking to myself that the service is so much better in Oz, people are friendly and competent. My sister, Miss N, agreed with me on that point. But then I got home and saw that our service was so much worse then I remembered. Normally being somewhere where the service is bad makes you appreciate what you have, but instead it pointed out the inadequacies even more. Its like while I was away a heap of crap customer service staff from the UK came over to taught everyone here how to be crap. Actually, that's unfair of me. There are still some people who serve you that are genuinely happy and helpful, or are at least pretending to be. And if they are they are very convincing.
So join in the rant, tell me about your crappest customer service experience. It just seems that customer service is pretty much non existent these days. Here you go, these are the clothes I don't want. Would you be a dear and hang them back up for me? Not bloody likely.
So join in the rant, tell me about your crappest customer service experience. It just seems that customer service is pretty much non existent these days. Here you go, these are the clothes I don't want. Would you be a dear and hang them back up for me? Not bloody likely.
That's it from me today.
Be awesome to each other.
5 comments:
OMG. Worst customer service experience ever was in a local rite aid. I came into the store with a vitamin water, and was drinking it while I browsed. I found some things I wanted and went up to the cash register to pay. The cashier then asked me if I was gonna pay for the vitamin water, and I politely replied that I bought the drink at the CVS up the road. So he accuses me of LYING and starts yelling that if I don't pay for the vitamin water, he's going to call the police. I told him to call the momoflucking police then because I have a receipt for the vitamin water, and I will gladly show it to anyone. I give him the dated and timestamped receipt, and he looks at it, looks back at me, and then BALLS THE RECEIPT UP AND THROWS IT IN MY FACE, still shouting that I'm a lying stealing bitch and that he's gonna call the police.
Long story short, the police were called. I ended up calling them, because the cashier told store security not to let me leave the store until I either paid for the drink or agreed to leave it behind. When the police got there, I gave them my receipt and explained the situation, and they were like...this is stupid. And I was like omg, I know.
I asked if I could press charges for harassment, defamation of character, unlawful imprisonment, and assault (because that ball of paper could have blinded me or papercut my face off) but the police said no. :(
The End.
So yeah...bad customer service? Totally universal...it's like a crazy epidemic. I blame a general decline in how society values manners.
I think that my worst experience was in a copy company. I went there to get some copies of college study material that I needed but I didn't have time to keep waiting, so I just left my name and phone number so I'd get there when it was done. When I went there to get them, I noticed that the copy machine girl had taken the copies all wrong. I wasn't even able to read them, because she had managed to crop the corners (don't ask me how *lol*). Then I showed them to her, and she started to try to convince me that the copies were still readable, and that I should still pay for them. Then I just lost my patience, and told her: you can either copy them right, or I'll just go away, because I won't pay for a service that wasn't fulfilled properly. She just looked at me with a really nasty look, but decided that I was right and made the copies as they should X__x
And the worst: if I had accepted what she was trying to convince me to, I'd have paid over R$100 (which is like 50 US dollars or so) for the messed up copies! O__O
Holy Damn Chaos. That's totally crazy. I've never had anything quite like that happen and honestly I am not sure how I would have handled the situation you found yourself in. I hate that lots of these people in minimul wage roles feel like they have a sense of entitlement and that they are better then the customers. I have had my fair share of those, but it's usually haughty sales assistants in clothing shops for me.
I hope you never returned to the store. At the very least you could have written a letter to the owner of the company and detailed the embarrassment the staff member caused you. It may have gotten you free stuff, and it may have even gotten the staff member fired! Which is no more then they deserve.
Thanks for sharing! And being my first official commenter. You rock!
Bec
Karina,
I've had something similar happen. At another company I worked for, I had to get some signs made up to go on the front of some buildings. I had around 50 of them and these things were huge and were worth a couple of thousand dollars each. I went in sign off on the completed work and realised that they had spelt a completely common word totally wrong. They then tried to convince me that no one would notice anyway and that it was just to much effort to redo them all.
They pretty much refused to fix them until I called the CEO of the company down there who also brought along out lawyers. It was insane. It was their mistake, but they were not willing to fix it because that mistake would cost them a quarter of a million dollars once materials and labour were taken into consideration. Good times.
Bec
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