Rules for Customers (4 Viewers)

[sXcGuRl69aU]

rant rant fuckin rant

 

[glycerine]

pretty much, i had a long night.

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

on this 'customer is always right' topic - it's more or less true, except for the fact that you cannot argue with the Machine. If the computer says it's this price or records your late fees as this much, then that's what it is. If you argue, you are wrong. End of story. Same goes for receipts, credit card transactions and all such related things. I'm no whiz with technology so if the computer says it, it must be true, and you're not getting anything else out of me, have a nice day.

when it comes to customers wanting petty shit done for them, though, you just have to grit your teeth and do it and hope they never return

 

[Evilo]

on this 'customer is always right' topic - it's more or less true, except for the fact that you cannot argue with the Machine. If the computer says it's this price or records your late fees as this much, then that's what it is. If you argue, you are wrong. End of story. Same goes for receipts, credit card transactions and all such related things. I'm no whiz with technology so if the computer says it, it must be true, and you're not getting anything else out of me, have a nice day.

when it comes to customers wanting petty shit done for them, though, you just have to grit your teeth and do it and hope they never return

but they always do lol

 

[wuddie]

yep, cosmic doris' got the right idea. not that it is all that pleasant putting up with people, but since when work is ever pleasant? stuff like this you are expected to put up with on a daily basis, and unless you do, you ought to quit.

i propose that instead of whining about what went wrong at your work, why don't you guys talk about how you went about fixing it? that way, this thread would actually be more interesting and i daresay a few less posts.

i'll take a brave lead. i had a woman complaining about the queue, whilst standing in the queue. when she eventually got to the bar, she abused one of my colleagues and asked for the supervisor. i oveheard the conversation and stepped in, even though i wasn't the supervisor that night. i literally told the woman to fk off and don't she ever come back or the securities will throw her out. problem solved. it wasn't all that pretty but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

that's really clever of you 'fixing the problem' like that

gobshite

 

[glycerine]

yeah, it's great alienating customers like that. like okay fair enough if they're causing a genuine problem or harassing/abusing staff. but dude, bitching about the queue? big fucking deal.
edit: okay i just reread your post, out of interest, how exactly were they harassing your coworker?

seriously: how can you say we should leave our jobs since we're so obviously unable to deal with it? i may bitch about customers in the appropriate arena, ie outside of work, but when i'm at work i'm willing to take a lot of shit to keep the customer happy. you obviously are not. so who's better at customer service?

 

[babikakez]

If you take the phrase to mean that you do whatever the customer says, that's not right. Like when a customer gives you a $20 and complains when you give change that he gave you a $50. It doesn't make business sense to try to satisfy customers who cost more than they're worth. Whenever a customer says to you "the customer is always right" it's because they're trying to get more than they should, usually by lying or having a fit.

A customer tried to make out that I had given she had given me a $50 while I had only given her change for a $20. So I made another supervisor count the till, turns out I was right. Unfortunately, the customer prior to her had been complaining that she had been given the wrong change on another till earlier in the day. It was slightly uncomfortable when you consider the coincidence.

 

[wuddie]

first and foremost, i look after the interest of my staff and colleague. the rest is unimportant. as much as customers are important to the establishment, we won't take the abuse from them. so if you think you are doing a great job at looking after your customers and love your job, you would certainly find a way to cope with the few tricky ones without the need to rant here.

 

[glycerine]

i do cope wth the few tricky ones! without resorting to kicking them out, by the way and before you give me some condescending shit i have worked hospitality as well.

i certainly don't profess to be perfect and customers irritate the shit out of me sometimes. that doesn't make me bad at my job, it makes me human.
for the record, i've read your 'maybe you may not be suited to cs' rhetoric and crap here and i do work in another area; i do have another job and am actually starting another job on top of that week. rest assured, i get just as if not more irritated in admin as i do in customer service. the reality is, work can be hard, as i'm sure you know. maybe you're superhuman and don't need to vent your frustrations or (more what you've demonstrated here) you're just shitty at customer service. frankly i don't give a shit. i'm not going to apologise for bitching about customers in the appropriate forum, especially when it means i can work harder to try and keep them happy even if they make it a bit difficult.

 

[Nashie]

My biggest annoyance at present in my current job (customer service in a big ticket item store) is "fair trading" every customer with an issue decides to tells me that they will go to fair trading, even though we have always been in the right with what we tell them! Of course to avoid the possibility we generally do what they want as even though we are right it will cost a lot and drag the comapny into the media. Th best one is a customer who demanded a refund on a tv unit that wobbled, then made up a problem to get it returned, the unit fell apart in the drivers hands, the idiot didnt build the unit properly, not a single thing was tightened!!! and my boss told me i still need to refund her the full amount.

The other annoying thing is our policy on no credit cards over the phone, it is for our customer's protection, and I have had 3 seperate customers bitching about it! It is for their own safety, having to drop into the store or having cash on delivery is a small inconvienience compared to finding you card maxed with porn memberships and beer.

 

[Evilo]

With the latter, i would respond with "this is our stores policy, i can't be bothered arguing with you, and the system is designed for your credit card safety in mind - good-day" *and then hangup*

 

[Lizakith]

first and foremost, i look after the interest of my staff and colleague. the rest is unimportant. as much as customers are important to the establishment, we won't take the abuse from them. so if you think you are doing a great job at looking after your customers and love your job, you would certainly find a way to cope with the few tricky ones without the need to rant here.

My God, you're a pompous, self-important git.
I agree with glycerine. Complaining on an internet forum is a completely different medium to how each of us is at work.

 

[Evilo]

^ i dont get it.

I work a few shifts at place, where the staff will abuse the customers back if they try and start something

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

My God, you're a pompous, self-important git.
I agree with glycerine. Complaining on an internet forum is a completely different medium to how each of us is at work.

yeah i'm with glycerine on this as well. we're all professional at work (i assume) and do our jobs and serve our customers properly. just because we want to rant a bit at the ones who are shitty doesn't mean we aren't "suited" to customer service or that we should quit our jobs. there's nothing wrong with venting when you feel the need to, in fact it's healthy...and the internet is a totally different sphere to work irl. plus we all have to do things we don't like and those uni fees have gotta be paid somehow, so excuse us if we don't all passionately love our jobs and think customer service is our one true calling

 

[Captain Gh3y]

i literally told the woman to fk off and don't she ever come back or the securities will throw her out. problem solved. it wasn't all that pretty but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Just quoting for how useful this would be in retail

 

[Evilo]

Yeah i did that, i clapped and said "thankyou for stealing from this store, youa re now banned from the store". She comes back like once a term - she was a massive bitch (and a thief) so good riddance

 

[rossverg]

Geez reading all of the above posts makes me wonder why I applied for a job at Woolworths this Christmas break :S:S... Should I quit now while I still have my sanity??

 

[townie]

oh, it's not that bad, most customers are okay, some are even good, but there is a small minority who make you want to scream and pull your hair out, but you get to keep your sanity, mostly

 

[RTTTYTR]

If you take the phrase to mean that you do whatever the customer says, that's not right. Like when a customer gives you a $20 and complains when you give change that he gave you a $50. It doesn't make business sense to try to satisfy customers who cost more than they're worth. Whenever a customer says to you "the customer is always right" it's because they're trying to get more than they should, usually by lying or having a fit.

If you take the phrase to mean that you treat the customer with respect, then yes that makes sense.

As if you're risking your job by (respectfully) not taking shit from customers, unless you work in a workplace that doesn't have respect for its employees and in that case you're better off elsewhere.

A rule of thumb in customer management is that a dissatisfied customer will tell 20 people and a satisfied customer will tell 5. By ignoring the externalities of the bad word spread by a customer, one would be underestimating the cost of non-compliance to customer satisfaction.