Customer Service philosophy

[reynaud]

As a cashier and a librarian, both my jobs involve dealing with customers, or, as libraries like to term them, "patrons." There are many, many slogans and catch phrases that involve customer service. "The Customer Is Always Right." "Be an Agent For the Customer." All of these sayings and slogans attempt to boil down the basics of great customer

Comments

[reynaud]

TCIAR is an fine attitude for the majority of situations, where the customer is either not unhappy or minorly peeved. In that case, it's easy to think of the customer as being right. But the problem comes up with the jerks. These can vary between the person whose just had a bad day and needs someone to vent on to the just generally unpleasant people who yell at everyone. They're not the people who get justifiably angry because of a major screw up on your part, but who start throwing abuse out over minor mistakes, or even just things that aren't done the way they want. You, the Customer Service Provider (CSP) may have done nothing more than point out some minor policy that inconveniences the customer (say, telling them that the store does not take American Express), and then exploding. How can you possibly take TCIAR to heart when you are being yelled at for no apparently good reason?

I just have a hard time supporting a philosophy that fails at the most fundamental crux of customer service, when the customer is pissed off without reason.

[sirvalence]

I think here we get back to the "all people deserve to be treated with respect because they are people" thing, even if the people are CSPs.

I would hate being treated that way. I'm sure it's infuriating.

If it helps any, people usually don't explode like that over just some minor thing. It's usually an accumulation of small things that have been going wrong over a period of time, and whatever happened with you was just one more thing. Yes, it's possible the person is just a jerk, but generally people just aren't like that (logical proof: society would fall apart). So you could try to tell yourself that whatever the person's anger, it's not about you, and they're probably having a lousy day.

Obviously this isn't the same as dealing with people who are trying to rip you off. ("There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant." - Anatole France)