Bad customer service or just bad customers.

Gavin83

geerex wrote: »

I used to get asked in supermarkets where the sugar/bread/incontinence pads were. "Sorry, I don't work here". "Are you sure?". "Yes, I'm almost certain"....
Morons, the lot of them.

I work in an office and therefore can generally be found in a suit. I often get this when entering retail stores, often several a week. Most apologise when they realise but some people are really quite argumentative. Even worse when they're in to complain.

Once I told one guy I didn't work there and he said "I know, I wanted your opinion on this product anyway". I'm thinking he was embarassed he'd got me confused but he really didn't go about it in the best way.

I always try and be polite to people in shops and restaurants and in all honestly I've never had bad service. Some has been exceptional. I did work in retail for 4 years (sales advisor at Comet) so I think this may well have something to do with it.

Mrs_Ryan

I worked in various customer service roles for about 10 years and in that time spoke to some truly horrible people. I was always nice though but the shouty ones always annoyed me. There was only once when I didn't interrupt and tell them to stop shouting and I have to say I was pretty truly disgusted with the actions of the company as it was very tragic what had happened to the poor mans wife- who was the Customer.
Hence I always try to be nice when I have to ring somewhere as I've been on the receiving end before. However now when I ring them I have to warn them I have mental health problems as I struggle to speak coherently sometimes, it can take me a while to get my words out and I can be chaotic so I have to warn them but so far everyone I have spoke to seems to be understanding. I haven't lost my rag yet (I don't do it often when I'm on the phone but it can occasionally happen without prior warning, my temper is horrendous when I'm unwell and I often don't remember) but I do feel guilty sometimes as it's like they're only doing their job.

rustyboy21

In general, the vast majority of people who work in either the retail or services industries are really good at their jobs. It is only a scarce few, who really shouldn't be in a front line customer services job. A lot of people think that retail or customer services is easy, which it isn't. It is one of the hardest and pressurised industries to work in. You have to think quickly and know systems inside out, to be good at it.


As long as the customer is reasonable in their expectations and is polite to me, I will deal with customers till the cows come home. It is only the scumbags who think the world owes them a living make the job harder.

duchy

I quite enjoy the shouty ones .......it's a real challenge sometimes to turn them from roaring lions to complete pu$$ycats by the end of the call. I sometimes volunteer to take the "I only want a manager" calls if I'm a bit bored.
I however won't tolerate getting sworn at though - and work on the three strikes basis - If someone is abusive I will terminate their call and flag their account as an abusive customer accordingly. Don't assume that ringing back after letting rip will get you more help as the agent usually can see what happened on the last call. I had a customer last week who admitted he had let rip at the previous agent and hung up. He got my best school teacher voice saying he would not be doing that to me He didn't and was happy I sorted the problem out.

Most people are great- it's a minority who are deliberately difficult -without cause.

Money-Saving-King

sillyvixen wrote: »

but one women accused me of having an attitude problem and reported me to a manager for denying working for M&S - she pointed me out while i w as waiting in the '5 items for fewer' line, stating in a loud voice, "she is wearing a uniform and name badge." to which the manager replied, " yes but neither supplied by us".

As a general rule of thumb with cases like the above, the bigger the customers attitude the smaller the brain is!

This rule has never failed yet.

aileth

I used to work in retail/call centre and my OH still does. There are a couple of people at OH's work who couldn't give a monkey's about customer service, but are all about the stats. My OH was given a verbal warning because although his customer service score was 99% (the average was about 75%), he was 2% behind on his sales figures. Yes, really.

I used to work at a call centre for a hotel booking agency. I remember once a fella had been outbooked from a 3 start in central london to the Savoy. The amount of abuse I received from him I still cannot fathom to this day.

I eventually ended up having to terminate the call and make a note on his account, even after I had phoned Savoy and asked if he could cancel no charge and they had agreed. Apparently he phoned back four further times (I re-checked his reference through curiosity at the end of the day) and barrelled abuse at four other people, then demanded to know why we had cancelled the hotel as he never said he didn't want it (Oh yes he did, several times to me). He ended up with absolutely nothing because it was the London Boat Show and there was no more availability through us, boohoo!

MABLE

Many years ago I was in a pet store in my home town and I must have looked like a member of staff because I was approached by a lady who was looking for a particular dog food. Thinking I could help I tried to find it for her. In the end I gave up and the lady threatened to report me to the manager. When i told her I didn't even worked there her face went bright red.

I just love the public.

NBLondon

bluenoseam wrote: »

Worst of those are the ones who despite seeing food in your hand will DEMAND that you serve them - sorry no, that's my LUNCH in my hand, I don't come up to you while you're at lunch so don't do it to me!

:question: - you have to eat your lunch on the shop floor? What sort of tyrants do you work for that you don't have a canteen/break area and can't leave the building?

Being approached while heading out to your break is annoying but how is the customer to know? If you can say, "I'll get someone to help you" and hand over quickly to a colleague - that should be acceptable to a reasonable customer. Of course, if you're the only uniformed person in sight...

rustyboy21

NBLondon wrote: »

:question: - you have to eat your lunch on the shop floor? What sort of tyrants do you work for that you don't have a canteen/break area and can't leave the building?

Being approached while heading out to your break is annoying but how is the customer to know? If you can say, "I'll get someone to help you" and hand over quickly to a colleague - that should be acceptable to a reasonable customer. Of course, if you're the only uniformed person in sight...

I don't know if you have worked retail in the past or do now, but the amount of shops that do not offer canteen facilities is quite high. You normally get a small box room, with stock also packed into it, a table, maybe a few chairs and a sink and microwave. Gone are the days of having a canteen, with kitchen staff, loads of tables TV on the wall and a buzzer to say when your break has finished.


I took it as the poster was walking out of the shop to go and get a sandwich for lunch. She may well have said I am on a break, but if you go over there someone may be able to help you, she hasn't substantiated her statement, but to me, she has done nothing wrong.


Not all retail staff are obtuse, 99.9% of them are nice, hard working staff, who take pride in their jobs. It is the maybe 2% of customers, who make that job so much harder.

bluenoseam

NBLondon wrote: »

:question: - you have to eat your lunch on the shop floor? What sort of tyrants do you work for that you don't have a canteen/break area and can't leave the building?

Being approached while heading out to your break is annoying but how is the customer to know? If you can say, "I'll get someone to help you" and hand over quickly to a colleague - that should be acceptable to a reasonable customer. Of course, if you're the only uniformed person in sight...

No, ofcourse it's not eating lunch on the shop floor, but when you're walking through the shop floor after having got it and you have said stuff in your hand and they still demand you serve them. As for "how's the customer supposed to know" that's why I almost always keep my wallet in my hand & visible until I'm out the door - it's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. As my uniform currently has a hoodie I'm not about to wear 2 jackets to work just to appease customers, so it's the best I can do. (In winter it's easier as you'll often need a rainproof effort as well, so I whack that on)

There's also those people who come in, particularly in the run up to Christmas & blame YOU because the biggest selling item of the year is currently out of stock. Either that or the ones who want to come in on Christmas Eve expecting to get the best sellers without any hassle! Or the ultimate, the ones who want to come in 5 minutes after closing time on Christmas Eve & bang on the doors to be let in - sorry chump, you have 364 shopping days to get your Christmas Shopping done. We've been open til 10 for the last month as well, so there's really no excuse for it, stop being a jerk to us because we want to get home to our families, it's not our fault you can't organise yourself!