Credit where it's due
I am a big believer in taking the time to praise people when they go over and beyond my expectations or respond to my occasional overreactions with poise and patience. Too many times people skate by on minimum effort or stoop to being petty or responding in kind to an involuntary blip on the emotional radar.
I am the kind of customer who demands to see the manager and gushes praise when a clerk has been particularly friendly or gave me the right level (not too pushy, not too standoffish) of service. I write thank you notes religiously, even when my mom isn't looking.
I think these small gestures of appreciation go a long way to ensuring that there's a little more of the good stuff (patience, forgiveness, tolerance, humor, gratitute) in what is often a pretty thankless world.
Sometimes, however, I'm just a little weird.
Case in point. The situation is this: I have McAfee virus protection on my computer. Somehow I managed to activate the "automatic renewal" function on said virus protection without being aware of it. On a day-to-day basis I tend to totally ignore all notifications that pop up on my computer and only become concerned with them if/when the computer stops working. (I have never been good at maintenance behavior in practice, though in theory I think it makes perfect sense. I hope that by switching careers into a preventative/holistic medicine field, I can be better about practice in my life as a whole. We shall see.) So, in short, I check my online banking and see - an unannounced 75 buck charge from McAfee. Naturally I am annoyed, since I have no recollection of approving this charge, and $70+ is not a pittance. I fire off an email to McAfee customer service asking them to remove the charge and cancel my automatic renewal function, dropping an annoyed reference to the general slowness of the program and the myriad popups like evil Hydra heads.
Time passes.
In a few days, I get a very measured, very thorough, very professional response confirming that the charge has been removed. The customer service representative gives me information on returning to McAfee with a discount, blah, blah, blah - all around it kind of makes me feel guilty for mouthing off (keying off?) and whining.
So I reply with this:
Thanks for your quick reply and response.
I realize a large part of this situation is due to my fairly unforgivable inattentiveness to various alerts and notifications. It's amazing how resentful people become when another entity tries to make them do what's best for them, simply because it wasn't 100% voluntary (often due to neglect on the part of the individual rather than design on the part of the entity). Legislators probably throw up their hands every day and wonder why they even bother due to this very same dilemma.
Despite the fact that we staunchy defend our right to be autonomously irresponsible (emphasis on the autonomously), the least we can do is keep good humor about it.
At least that's what I think.
So I appreciate the quick service and professional, thorough response. It reflects well on your company.
Why I felt obliged to include some vague philosophying on human nature and the predicament of lawmakers... I cannot say. I'm sure this customer service rep could really care less and he/she was just doing his/her job.
But maybe he/she can get a good chuckle out of it, which sometimes, REALLY, is all that matters. Maybe that "what the hell?!" laugh will better equip him/her to deal with the next person - who really IS an ass about something inconsequential - with the same aplomb.
I am the kind of customer who demands to see the manager and gushes praise when a clerk has been particularly friendly or gave me the right level (not too pushy, not too standoffish) of service. I write thank you notes religiously, even when my mom isn't looking.
I think these small gestures of appreciation go a long way to ensuring that there's a little more of the good stuff (patience, forgiveness, tolerance, humor, gratitute) in what is often a pretty thankless world.
Sometimes, however, I'm just a little weird.
Case in point. The situation is this: I have McAfee virus protection on my computer. Somehow I managed to activate the "automatic renewal" function on said virus protection without being aware of it. On a day-to-day basis I tend to totally ignore all notifications that pop up on my computer and only become concerned with them if/when the computer stops working. (I have never been good at maintenance behavior in practice, though in theory I think it makes perfect sense. I hope that by switching careers into a preventative/holistic medicine field, I can be better about practice in my life as a whole. We shall see.) So, in short, I check my online banking and see - an unannounced 75 buck charge from McAfee. Naturally I am annoyed, since I have no recollection of approving this charge, and $70+ is not a pittance. I fire off an email to McAfee customer service asking them to remove the charge and cancel my automatic renewal function, dropping an annoyed reference to the general slowness of the program and the myriad popups like evil Hydra heads.
Time passes.
In a few days, I get a very measured, very thorough, very professional response confirming that the charge has been removed. The customer service representative gives me information on returning to McAfee with a discount, blah, blah, blah - all around it kind of makes me feel guilty for mouthing off (keying off?) and whining.
So I reply with this:
Thanks for your quick reply and response.
I realize a large part of this situation is due to my fairly unforgivable inattentiveness to various alerts and notifications. It's amazing how resentful people become when another entity tries to make them do what's best for them, simply because it wasn't 100% voluntary (often due to neglect on the part of the individual rather than design on the part of the entity). Legislators probably throw up their hands every day and wonder why they even bother due to this very same dilemma.
Despite the fact that we staunchy defend our right to be autonomously irresponsible (emphasis on the autonomously), the least we can do is keep good humor about it.
At least that's what I think.
So I appreciate the quick service and professional, thorough response. It reflects well on your company.
Why I felt obliged to include some vague philosophying on human nature and the predicament of lawmakers... I cannot say. I'm sure this customer service rep could really care less and he/she was just doing his/her job.
But maybe he/she can get a good chuckle out of it, which sometimes, REALLY, is all that matters. Maybe that "what the hell?!" laugh will better equip him/her to deal with the next person - who really IS an ass about something inconsequential - with the same aplomb.