I wouldn’t have been mouthing it behind my menu. I’d have told the person to her face to be nice, but I’m kind of notorious for calling people who are with me on their behaviour.

*vigorous nod of agreement* Waitressing is a lousy job and is no fun (did it for a summer in high school), so unless waitstaff is really rude to me I try to be friendly and considerate of them. Even if they’re rude I try to be polite and just move on and not come back. Same with other customer service situations.

Once once did I semi lose my temper at a phone company because they’d screwed me over so many times in a row, and the person I was dealing with fixed it, and I apologized to her for not being as calm as I’d have liked.

I have a lot of sympathy for customer service folks in particular, as well as service staff in general, because they so often get to deal with people who are angry or upset and who don’t bother to consider that their gripe isn’t directly with the person they’re talking to.

I’ve just read the blog, as someone who has worked in both the retail and food service industries, I can clearly say that the customer has no god-damn idea what they are talking about… the sooner us till-jockey’s rise up and chew people out who get on our bad side the better.

VIVA LA RESISTANCE!!

While there are indeed many cases of customers abusing employees, the same is true of the inverse. Customer service has died in this day and age and half the time, people seem to act as though they’re doing you a favor when performing their job. “Excuse me! You’re getting PAID for this! Forgive me for inconviencing you for something so insignificant as YOUR JOB!” …Not that I say that, but it’s severely tempting to do so at times :D I believe I’ve only been rude to an employee of customer service once, yes, a waitress- It was early in this recession and, I assume, at her place of work, many of her co-workers were being “let go”. While a few friends and I were trying to celebrate a birthday party, she took it upon herself to liberally inform us of this private state of affairs at the restaraunt. I took it upon myself to liberally inform her that we were all broke high school kids and hadn’t the money to tip any more than usual, so she’d wasted a bit of breath… sorry. My friends found this to be incredibly rude, and maybe it was, but I preferred to be frank with her rather than let her foster the delusion that this sob story would create bigger tips. One: It was a private matter within the restaraunt and I’m sure if her manager had heard her speaking of it with customers, she would have most certainly been “let go”. Two: For said reason, one does not burden the customer with such knowledge. Three: To rely on a sob story to produce a tip rather than her own personal skills states that perhaps she was in the wrong job to start. I don’t mind being manipulated by good customer service. I’ve ran into some wonderful employees who’ve been so great that I’ve wanted to tuck them in my pocket and take them home (tipped generously instead- Businesses frown upon employee theft :D). The customer most certainly isn’t always right, but he’s also not a complete idiot and shouldn’t be treated as such. Um, well, yeah, that’s my random ramble- Um, sorry.

Food Service and Customer service are both very hard jobs. I have done both myself. Yes, I have met fellow employees that were ruder than shit, and those deserve whatever gets handed back to them. But the majority of those working in the service industry are working thier asses off to make suer they customer gets what they want and/or need. Being rude to the employee for no reason is very uncalled for. One of the first rules at most customer service sites is that if the caller gets rude and starts cussing, you have the right to warn them once, and then disconnect the call. At my last CSR job, we didn’t even have to give them a warning. I don’t care how much or how little you get paid, if you are doing your best to help them and they stomp all over you, you don’t get paid enough to put up with it. If your manager won’t help you diffuse the situation, or let you change to another customer, then it’s time to find a new job.

Sorry about the rant there!

I ran into something comparable to what Annonymous ran into at a grocery store. The cashier was being polite to this older woman who was bitching her out because the girl “sorted the groceries wrong”. The girl was ringing in the groceries and bagging them. She did the standard put the fruit in with the fruit and the bread in a separate bag so it wouldn’t be squashed. The older woman just started chewing her out, telling her she was stupid, a brat and wasn’t listening to anything she told the girl and that she wanted such and such in THAT bag not THIS one. The poor teenager was polite “yes ma’am. Ok ma’am. Does that work ma’am?”. The older woman went to the manager and chewed him out. I went to the manager and told him that the poor girl had done everything she could and was nothing but polite.

There are other examples too. Like actually being helped by a cashier and the couple behind us yelling at the poor kid because if he “couldn’t get his act together” to help THEM then he was going to loose a sale and they couldn’t stand such “poor” quality of work. HE WAS HELPING ME AT THE TIME! I turned and called the woman a bitch in front of the whole store and told her she could wait her turn while WE were being helped by the poor kid because WE were ahead of her in the line.

I agree with alot of whats being said, but from a managment stand point, having grown up around the local gas stations my father manages, the way managment often looks at it is that “the customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer.” this somewhat cryptic phrase essentialy means that the customer should always be treated with respect and that the employees, mangagers and propritors should try to accomodate the customer as much as possible.

an exapmle:

at the truck stop where i held my first job is a truck wash. there are several options of wash the trucker can get, from a wash out(hoseing out and mopping the inside of the trailer) allthe way up to a complete was of both tractor and trailer. a full wash can take up too 30 min. one christmas eve, a driver came into the truck stop from the truck wash angrily demanding his truck be washed. the full wash he wanted would take about 30 min. it was 9:45 at night, and the truck wash closes at 10; the guys working the truck wash said they couldnt do a full wash. the driver was redirected to my father as the station manager went home. the agreement that was reached was that the man came in at 9:45 not 10 so he got his wash. he had to pay for it and there were no cupons. no one got fired, and the customer was satisfied. a simmilar incident happened about a week later when a trucker came in and demanded a full wash rigt as the guys were closing out. same phone call, but the man got no wash that night. he was offered a cupon for a free wash the man got beligerant, and called back to my father again. this time the driver was told that that’s ok, he could take the truck somewhere else if thats how he felt about it.

In short, the thing that comes first is the sale. i think some managers are far too quick to give up. “this meals free and here are som cupons for the next 3 meals at denny’s” what should be said is “Ok sir when you pay your bill i’ll give you cupon you can use next time” and if that doesnt work, he should be told to pay up and get the fuck out. assuming its too late to cancel the order.

asfor the respect thing, i agree 100%, so no need to coment

Worked for a year at a Blockbuster… that experience makes me believe everyone should be forced to do retail/customer service/food service as a first job.
After working there, I’ve lost my temper to a clerk three times maybe, though never resorting to personal attacks, and I apologize afterward.

Had a woman come in one night, complaining about late fees. She bitched to me for a few minutes, as I refused to refund her late fees (The videos had been checked in on my machine, all at once, so they sure as hell weren’t found on the shelf later). Finally, she goes to my manager and bitches to her.

The manager, whom I still have alot of respect for, refuses to refund her late fees (normally, she would have, but the woman was the rudest person any of us had seen in a while). So the woman takes down the District Manager’s number and storms out. While she’s leaving, she bitches out me and the other CSR, claiming that if we’d not have dropped out of high school, we’d not be in such a place. Mind you, I had a 1260 on my SAT and was just accepted to a pretty good college a few weeks prior, and the other CSR had a 3.8 GPA at his college.

The other CSR proceeded to follow her out and relay this information to her. Never heard from the woman again after that, the DM probably bitched out the manager, but nothing came of it.

Customer service. Bah. I work as a customer service rep and for the past two weeks we’ve gotten some really pesky customers.

I remember my first job, someone threatened me and slammed the door in my face. Another time, a coworker of mine was almost sexually assaulted on the job. That’s a different story though.

Anyways, I could go into a long-winded rant about the customers I’ve recieved but I’m far too tired for this. >_>

Great post! Can’t really add anything more that someone hasn’t already said. Thanks for the read. I agree with it completely.

Thanks anath, i really liked that one, like simplecap said, what else is there to say.

I have to deal with this whenever I go anywhere with my aunt. She is almost never satisfied with the service she receives, and she will always complain about it. I have not once see her respond to a mistake by a waiter/waitress with grace.

Amen to that Ananth! To bad civility ain’t profitable right!?

I work at a cafe near my house (I live in Melbourne, Australia) and I have a rule I follow:
Before I work ANYWHERE I go there 4 times, once every week for four weeks, before I apply.

Now, I eat there a fair bit so, I decided to skip the “surveillance” step. I walked into the store and asked for an application form, the manager (who I’m friends with)
said: “Wait, before you sign that form, let me tell you something. Every week I get this lady who comes into my cafe, and orders a vegan wrap. And, once one of my employees accidentally gave her a chicken wrap. Well, she took it as an offense to her beliefs and threw th plate at my employees head. She stormed out but not before she had the chance to say that she was highly offended and would tell everyone she knew not to go there. It’s up to you, but there are risks.”

I did decide to work there and (so far) have had no problems with belligerent customers.

- The-Masses

well i always think that you should treat the people that are handeling your food with respect! Just so nothing that shouldn’t be there isn’t…..

ahh, i call it ‘holier then thou’ syndrome, or even easier said ‘i’m better then you’ syndrome. people who forgot that 20, 30 or even 5 years previous, they were in that same situation, and someone was probably a bitch to them. i mean, i make fun of the underclassmen in my school, just the ones i know who know i’m only joking. i don’t just push people around because i can.

hell, with working in retail, i sympathize wiht cashiers entirely. a little different for waiters, but same boat.just because we’re ’serving’ you, doesn’t mean you have to be a twat on a power trip!

in the end, i concur.

I guess I was a lucky one. I work at a gas station as a full serve attendant. My 3rd week of working there (I’m part time, so I only did work about 7 shifts, and this was my first weekday), some jerkass gets gas, and just as I ring his purchase through, he tells me he wants a carwash. Policy is to discount him $2 off the wash if it happens, so I give him 2 receipts. He gets pissed off at me for that, and then says that I didn’t get him his cigarettes (Which of course he didn’t ask for) and starts yelling at me. Fortunately some guy actually had the balls to tell the guy to quit it. Its nice that some people actually have a conscience and actually do stuff like that for people who are prohibited from speaking up on penalty of job loss.

Having worked 2 1/2 years of Customer service, 2 years fast food, a year at a gas station, and two years at a hotel…I can assure you…the customer is most certainly NOT always right. In fact…9 out of 10 times…they’re total douchebags.

Has anyone seen Lethal Weapon 4 when Riggs calls Leo a “Telephone Tough Guy”? If you have, and you work in a call center, then you will understand. People can get scary when you’re face to face with them–I’ve been there so I know–but they get down right FUNNY when they’re angry and you’re talking to them on the phone.

Example: I work as a CSR for a cell phone company. I got this customer one day a few years back who DEMANDED I credit back his long distance calls from the US to Jamaca because his other cell phone carrier and his landline service didn’t charge as much. This moron had already been told by eight other CSR’s and five supervisors that the charges are valid. My supervisor at the time had told him that THREE times before I got him.

He got very abusive and called me some rather inventive and quite funny names that were slurred swear words–I wish I could remember them, I would use them for people like Fur Coat in the article. I technically should have hung up on him after the third “stupid f*cking bitch” but he had a british accent and I can listen to them all day. :D

Finally, when he paused for breath (after a solid five minute rant), I had said, “Sir. I know that you are probably wanting to speak to my supervisor but she will be the same one you spoke to not fifteen minutes ago.”

He still demanded talking to her and she had said, “Hello sir. It is nice talking to you again. For the fourth and final time, I am not issuing the credits. Thank you for calling and have a nice day.”

Sarcasam is hard to present in text, but her voice was DRIPPING in it. Shortly afterwards, she sent an email out call center wide from not her but her manager advising that no one was to be giving the customer any credits because they are valid charges.

I might note that it was was a four thousand dollar bill due to the long distance charges.

I worked 4 years in a food store…always polite to jackasses…… one time not long before I quit…some fat dumbass is insulting a girl I worked with and she wasn’t even saying anything to him….. I stepped in, defended her and when he started to yell at me I insulted him (I’ll spare the details)…and the bastard SUED the store for “damage to his reputation in public”….. the good thing is that when he went to my superviser to put a complaint on me… my superviser told him to fuck off…..

I haven’t seen a situation like in the link but I always go out of my way to thank the people behind the counter. It seems to surprise them more than it should.

So me working in retail for almost 2 yrs, I figure I had to weigh in on this:

I read that whole entry at the link, and frankly, 100 percent of that is true. Worse though, in my mind, is when you’re working in a discount department store (mine is a Marshall’s, in particular)

People yell at you over the TINIEST things. Like whether or not a COACH bag should cost 100 bucks and stuff like that. First off, I know we’re discount department, but that doesn’t mean we’re morons! If we’re selling something for drastically (and by drastically I mean roughly 200 bucks) under the manufacturer’s set price, then be A LITTLE, fucking reasonable!

Women (mostly) flipping a shit because some shoes “have a scuff on them, and should be on clearance” when they ALREADY ARE! When you point that out to them, they get all testy with you! (“Well, shouldn’t it be on DEEPER clearance?!”)

I’ve had enough finally. I’ve made it a practice to tell off rude customers. Just the other day, some asshole cut the line and tried to act like it was no big deal. I tell him to go to the back of the line. He flips a shit at me. I tell him “Hey, if you don’t wanna wait, walk the fuck outside. I don’t need you here to bother me with your incessant whining!”

Thankfully, I have an understanding boss :D

I work at a Calendar Kiosk/Book Store, my first job that I lasted more than a few hours at due to health reasons. In the same day this past week I’ve had two rude customers.

One came up to me and my co-worker and did all but called me a “bitch” and flip us the bird. She didn’t seem to understand that reciepts are needed in order to return/exchange things because otherwise we have NO way to confirm if you actually got it from us or from somewhere else, even when I explained it. I don’t really know of any place that DOESN’T work that way.

The other person came up and practically said to us that we weren’t doing our jobs right because not all of our calendars were opened so everyone could see the inside of them.

Call us employees stupid, but we all pretty much agree that if you don’t have an idea of what the calendar is like on the inside by the six or more photos on the BACK of the calendar, like 99% of all the other calendars, then you’re a fucking idiot and we really don’t need your business.

Yes, we open calendars if you can’t see a sample of the inside on the back or arn’t sure of if you can write inside them (a few were like this), but if you have a good deal of information on the back of it then we kindly (read as: mock you inside our heads and aloud after you leave) point out that what’s on the back in generally what is on the inside.

Heck, we work there. If worse comes to worse, we’ll buy the opened merchandise ourselves with our discount! One can always use a good girly (read as: boobies!) calendar or one with fuzzy wittle creatures of utter cuteness doom!

All that aside, it does suck that we have to put up with that shit constantly…but an employee should never be afraid to call in their manager on their own terms if they cannot handle it (read as: might kill the customer). I know if someone was being verbally abusive and acting psycho, I’d either flag a security guard or call one of the old ladies from the store in for reinforcement. xD Screw the ramifications! No buisness need’s buisness THAT badly (read as: Seriously. You don’t.).

On another note, an employee shouldn’t be afraid to quietly point out a mistake on the customer’s part. Say, if they give you the wrong dollar ammount or if you already gave them their card and they just didn’t see it there. Don’t act like an ass about it, but don’t kiss ass either. Just point out the truth in a decent manner.

As a college student just recently coming off a 2 year stint as a retail worker, I can say that I fully agree with the sentiments of the writer of the blog, and with Ananth. I worked at a small business and was often the only employee, which meant I’d sometimes have to juggle 5 or more customers at once.

Add this to the fact that I really don’t like stupid people all that much (and I worked at a pet shop, which should require a certain minimum level of intelligence to shop at for pets), and I got very close to losing my temper more than once.

Customers shouldn’t be jackasses just because they can be. Especially when they have to deal with vindictive employees like me, who recall a certain other phrase: “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”

Manners are free. My parents taught me to say please and thank you, and to treat other people the way I’d like to be treated. When did that stop? Tell me I’m not the only 18 year old metalhead who still remembers the Golden Rule and tries to be polite and accomodating.

Oh the thrills of working sales. … true, I deal less with bitchy customers cause I’m not in a service-esque field, but I do get a lot of STUPID customers, and in turn, will be bitchy to my face, but oh, I can’t do anything. At THE VERY LEAST, if I say something not exactly right and the customer starts reaming me, I can bring them to my manager, who gives a shit less what the customers think. :D He could listen them nag and nag and nag about something I did (which happened when I was new, but hasn’t happened since) and support me still, and just shrug the customer off, which pisses the customer off MORE, but basically forces them to either the person-in-charge or the store manager.

Of course, I get more courteous or understanding customers than asshole customers, thankfully.

There is one thing I learned from working the food store for 4 years…… when the clerk is running around and tells you not to worry that he’ll be with you any minute saying… just telling him “hey don’t worry I ain’t in a hurry” gets you a fabulous service and a great smile if the clerk is a girl. ;)

I have one thing to say to your experience. “That was you!?” *smirks* I was a waitress for 8 years, I’ve had the entire spectrum. *TRUST* me they’re everywhere. Watch the movie Waiting. It’s almost scary with how true the movie is.

The golden rule of customer world: “The customer is always right”
The golden rule of Employee life: “Fuck no he ain’t”…

Was a manager for a pizza restaurant not to long ago, and I was one of the few managers that took my employees side over a customer. I was getting yelled at by a customer because a pizza that was not evenly cut. Went through the usual “Yeah, I’ll replace it” scenario, when he decided to refer to one of my employees as a retarded and not deserving of a crap job. I took his pizza, handed it back, and told him to go to leave. Everyone gave this puzzled look, never having seen a manager just kick someone out, but I do not tolerate abuse of my employees. I 86′d him and told him our competitor is right across the street, and to have a nice day.
I always do my best to respect and be as helpful to anyone in any service industry because I’ve been there and am stil l there, it’s rough. When I go out to eat, if the waiter/waitress is having it rough and tries their best to help us out, I tip them heavy, with a note thanking them for their service.

Hmm, I can just add to the many rude customers. One came into the grocery store I worked in. It was the day after Independence day, it had rained that day. She returned over $200 in food that the store could not resell, just because it rained the day before.

I have more. ^_^

I’m afraid that this is somewhat the general idea of American behaviour in Europe :(

As bristled as that woman is on a day to day basis with her “better then being you” statements. She makes valid points. Once you’ve worked in a job where you have to serve others like a waitress or cashier then tend to gain a greater degree of respect for others in that same position. Hell yes ‘waiting’ is accurate for the waiter/waitress point of view.

I remember in kindergarten, we learned how to line up, we learned how practice good manners, with saying ‘please and thank-yous’… we had lessons on how to properly interact with the people in the same room as us. Everything one needs to know about how to carry one’s self in a social situation is learned in kindergarten. So, when somebody stupid comes around and does something to piss me off, I remind myself that he or she obviously isn’t even smart enough to understand anything at a kindergarten learning level, and I therefore should treat that person like the incompetent child he/she makes him/her self out to be. *shrug*

I’ve seen a manager stick up for her employee, a a tim horton’s coffee shop here. 3 people were barking orders at this poor girl, litterally on her first day there, when the manager came around, and started talking back at the people at like 400 miles an hour. The people got irritated and told her they couldn’t understand a word she said, so the manager told them “times that by 3, that’s how this girl feels. get back in line”

made my day brighter.

I can relate to the poor kids behind the counter, mostly cause I still am one. I’m about to dive back into retail for some holiday cash on my university break and I just know there’s gonna be an endless stream of assholes to deal with. Mostly I work in the supermarket cashier department and one woman really sticks in my mind as being the ultimate “I’m better than you” customer. She starts by questioning the price of a piece of meat. It’s from the supermarket’s ultra swanky range. I.E It’s a third of the size any normal person would find satisfying and about 8 times the price. Since it’s pre-packed the price is listed on the front in big letters. She complains it’s too expensive. She should get it cheaper.
I calmly explain to her that that’s the price per kilo and it actually costs only half that. She looks down her nose at me and stalks onto the other end of the till. I start to bag because I’ve been trained to do so and the fact that the customer is so bad, I do it out of speed. Suddenly, this vicious tone whiplashes out at me “Don’t you have any PLAIN bags?!” Hoping the vein in my forehead isn’t going to explode, I respond no. “Then don’t BOTHER. I’m embarrassed to shop here!” Right. Ok. First, why shop somewhere that embarrasses you? Second, I’m not good enough for you? You were expecting perhaps a crisp suit and a gameshow host smile? She then proceeds to pack her shopping in the small supply of clear plastic bags I have for bagging pieces of fruit for weighing. These things hold three grapefruits and she’s trying to fit everything into them. Whatever. Scanscanscan at 3 million miles an hour just to get her out of my face. Excellent. I deliver my Thank-yous through teeth so clenched I could’ve bitten through lead. Finally. The next customer gives me a look and a knowing wink. I feel a bit better. Then from the foulest pits of Hell comes this screech about a minute later.
“LOOK AT MY PURSE!!!” It’s a nice purse. Every tendon in my body tightens as I try not to say that. I manage a Yes?
“You gave me £5 back! I gave you a £20 note!!!” Nails on a chalkboard. I’ve reached the dangerous point where I’m totally calm. I examine her receipt. I look at her change. I turn and make sure every single person in not only my line but the next two tills are watching. I carefully set my tone to loud and pleasant.
“Yes madam. That’s a fourteen there. Generally I give £5 and some change back when you give me a £20 for £14 shop. Would you me to get my manager over to give you the correct amount of change?” By this time every soul in the place is watching .
She snatches her purse back and storms off red faced. I turn back with a big grin.
“Next please!”
You gotta love the fact that these pompous gits often trip themselves up as they try and blow their bad service out of proportion.

I’ve worked in a very nice non corporate owned resturaunt a few years ago. There was a customer who believed his food took too long on a busy Saturday night and decided it was his server’s fault. He waited until he was at the front of the resturaunt paying before chewing her out infront of everyone waiting to sit down. The owner came up and tried to placate him but when the man started calling the girl some very bad names he kicked him out and banned him from the resturaunt. The next people in line told me how happy they were that the owner stood up for his employees.

I have never liked the people that feel because someone is in a service position they are owed the world. I almost want to become a manager of coffee shop or restaurant so I can put up a bulletin board with the photos of customers that were rude to my workers. I will have in 12″ letters “We will respect you, if you respect us.” If someone is rude to my employees, I would walk up with digital camera in hand ask “Is there a problem?” take their picture, tell tehm they have the right to leave, but no right to talk to my employees in that manner, then print out the picture and post it. On the top of the bulletin board would read the words “These people were rude, and are not welcome here.” That is what I would do. Of course my employees would know that if they are rude to customers, they are out the door too. Yeah, that’s what I would do (and probably get sued for it). There is no excuse for rudeness.

it’s the little details like that in daily life that make me keep losing faith in humanity – not that I started out with a lot anyway. I get treated like that on a daily basis in all of my jobs (from web design straight down to bike repair/delivery) and I keep finding myself thinking ‘do I treat people like that?’ So lo and behold, I find myself reading this post right after I told some corporate jackass on the subway to fuck off after I saw him screaming at some latino kids to get the fuck away from the subway doors. I wonder if there is a physical law that states that civility works in both directions. I hope not :P

I’m not sure about the rest of Australia, but I know that certainly in Tasmania, politeness seems to be of *far* more importance than say tipping.
A few years ago, I remember a story of a restaurant suing someone for not tipping. This strikes me as *very* sick.
In most of the places where I have worked, a kind word is *far* better than a tip. A tip will buy you a coffee on the way home, but a kind word will leave you feeling good for the rest of your shift.
When I go out to restaurants, I only ever leave a tip if I get really good service, but I also leave them with a kind word too. This is the way that the tip should be – the customers way of showing appreciation for good service, not something that has to be done (Tipping in fast-food places is simply ridiculous), but I digress.

Here managers (And employees) seem more willing to publicly stick up for themselves.
On one of the few occasions where I have seen someone shout at a waitress, the waitress merely stood there until they stopped, then calmly said “are you finished? Good, You have two options, either apologize for making a scene and interrupting other customers meals, and pay for your meal, or you can leave and never come back again. If you are going to act like that towards us, who have been worked off our feet all night, then we don’t need your custom.”
By now, everyone in the room was staring at them and he’d gone bright red…
He just said sorry and handed her his credit card (As an added bonus, his date walked out on him).

That is how things *should* work everywhere.

Achanon
Australia

I worked at a KFC where the owner marched into the lobby, and told a woman (who had made a very sweet employee cry) that she wasn’t allowed to treat his employees like that and he never wanted to see her in his store ever again.

God, I love that man.

I can hardly deny that there is quite a bit of poor customer service, but look at what many employees are up against:
*minimum training
*minimum wage
*minimum civility from customers
and most importantly
*minimum civility from employers

Let’s face it, it is really hard to give a crap about customers if your employer doesn’t give a crap about you. I’m not saying that your manager should have to sympatheticly listen to every detail of your love life, but they should be understanding if you’re late because your car died when you are otherwise always on time. This is not always the case.

Nor are people always hired for the right position. It’s like Ananth’s (brief) manager said, “Customer service isn’t for everyone.” Unlike Ananth, some people, for whatever reasons, stay in those jobs. There they’re miserable, and they make both customers and coworkers miserable.

For those you run into who DO do an outstanding job, tell them. Better yet tell their manager. It can make their day. Have you ever called a “How’s my driving?” number and told them someone was doing a good job? Or called back after an issue has been resolved just to say thank you? It’s amazing how you can hear their day get a little better.

I have worked both retail and food service for a good amount of time and there is a secret to dealing with these people. Do not take rudeness. The minute someone says something rude, assert yourself. Don’t be rude back, just stern. And you have to do it right away, if they have any chance to get the upper hand, it is too late. If you do this, you will earn their respect. I had a coworker tell me this and found that it worked so well that most of our problem customers asked for me by name and they were always polite to me even though they treated everyone else like crap.

I just commented a bit ago, but now I feel it neccesary to comment again after the Friday I had yesterday…. Ugh.

That aside, for the moment, let it be said that not only must employee’s put up with their customers but also people higher up than them on their company food chain!

In my case, it was my district manager that, on a surprise visit of two hours notice, basically called me and a new(er) co-worker (said co-worker was away, I told her “with all due respect, she just started about a week ago…”. Her reply? She should have had better training and not only was that directed towards my senior co-workers, but towards me since I mostly work the particular seasonal side kiosk she was visiting. Like she learned everything about her job in her first week. *snorts*) stupid because we had forgot to sign an audit sheet on an occassion or two (Gee, after being in the middle of the mall surrounded by customers for hours with a limited walking/standing point…no one would ever become so tired as to forget! What a thought!) and followed our boss’s orders of saying we didn’t have to count out after a cash pull. She was…decent…enough to say that we were mis-informed, but didn’t hesitate to use the tone that made it sound like I was a dog that just soiled the carpet. Scared me shitless, but what can you do? Certiantly not become near tears infront of the customers and act like it’s allergies![/sarcasm]

I work customer support for Dell, and I get it good. Customers by defualt are angry by the time they reach me, I’m only talking to them cause they have a problem. This has a tendancy to create a very stressfull environment but your employeer can go a long way to fixing this and its a message I wanna make clear for everyone. Everyone knows customer cna be idiots and so can servers, hell they can be idiots at each other and create a whole big mess. I’ve dealt with absolutley livid customers because they’ve been sold PCI cards for system with no PCI slots. I’ve seen customers wanting a replacement system because it didn’t ship with microsoft office. I’ve had customers yelling at me because they claimed that I didn’t think they were smart enough to tel a dead HDD when in actual fact they never gave me enough proof to authorize a dispatch. I’ve spent hours with customers banging my head against a desk trying to explain SW and liscensing and how CD keys work. But I’ve remained nice I’ve remained civil and msot of all I’ve remained sane and I’ve gotta thank my employeer for that. They give me direct channels to people who can deal (and have been trained) with angry customers, they provide extra training to make sure you can deal with angry customers. They have plenty of stress reliving activities, theres a pool table in the cafeteria, they hand out sponge objects you can massacre to relive anger about customers. If an employer goes that extra mile for its employees they are able to handel the stupidty of the general pblic with much more grace and ease, its jsut one thing I think accounts and managers get so hung up about “Thats not a cost effective strategy “. Whats not cost effective is loosing buisness due to bad customer being treated badly.

On the same token though I don’t hold my tounge too much, if the customers wrong or way out of left field I don’t skip a beat about telling them what they actually meant to say or what thier actually going to get.

all i want to say is who ever blog that is, i would personally like to thank people like that. ive had several retail jobs and its people like that who treat us with a little respect who make our days. thank you for being human. : )

I’m kind of sitting on the sideline with this, because having been both customer and working coffee shop cashier, I can safely say, it really depends upon the situation. I’ve had quite a few situations, as a cashier, with said “Fur Coat”, although she tends to take on different forms and genders each time.

However, from my experience, I agree that it’s really that “customer is right” or “just say yes” as they say at our store. A lot of the difficulty comes from a conflict between store policy and common sense. For instance, our store has a policy of locking $20s in a safebox, to keep minimal change in our drawers. Common sense dictates that if all your large bills are locked in a safebox, you can’t break bills larger than maybe a $50 without emptying your drawer. However, common sense has never met our store policy, and we have no sign that says we can’t break $100s, and they in fact encourage us to try, even though my managers give me crap every time I empty out my drawer. Then of course we have the customers, ordering $3.00s worth of coffee, and paying with a hundred dollar bill, and quite shocked and indignant that I can’t break it, because EVERYBODY breaks it, and they don’t ever carry any other cash or credit card on them. :P

You really should beware what customer service folk you piss off though, and if you do remember who they are O-o;. Some of them have long memory spans (I should know). I remember every customer who has ever yelled at me. But you know what’s funny. None of them ever remember me. A couple of them have come back after screaming at me, and they don’t even know who the hell I am. But I know them. And ironically, I treat them exactly the same way I treated them the first time, and they just smile and go away. …