Good customer service is not hard. . .

[ravevolution]

to find it it weren't for shitty customers.

I was that one famous Mart place, ye know the one that starts with a 'W' and is notorous for its share of SC's

So today I went with my friend cause he needed to pick some random crap and I wanted out of the house on my day off.

So we were in line at the check out and the lady ahead of us is with her friend and being a total biotch about the price of something that scanned, course the checker has todo a price check and calls over the PA system. While me and my friend make small talk and roll eyes over this lady we can hear her just ranting about how this particular store sucks, how you can't find good customer service anywhere.

The checker gets the right price and low behold the lady is wrong and decides its robbery over the item and gives a bit more of a attitude and decides shes not gonna get it and so on. Walking off she says out loud again how you cannot find good customer service anywhere and I out loud say 'its cause you can't find a good customer anymore bitch!' my friend starts laughing and is like 'oh no you didn't?' There are other people near by on other lines and they start giggling. I don't know if the lady heard or not but its when I start doing my rant bout the reason good customer service is hard to find is cause the customers are the reason, how if it wasn't for their suck ass attitudes and behavior, people would be more nice when working in CS. The whole time the checker is having a bit of a giggle too, she bags my friends stuff and says "Have a good day" with a smile and I respond "you too and sorry bout my rant" to which she shakes her head as it was ok.

Personally as a customer when I approach a worker store as I wasin the one today, I'm polite and civil and the people assisting are just as nice in return. If was to be a punk I'm sure I would get lackluster service. Goes to show good customer service is not dead, just dead to the SC's

[Bright_Star]

SC's think if they can't get their way then it's "bad customer service".

[Dilorenzo]

Bad Customer Service is not having the world bend to their very will, as Bright Star said. Bad Customer Service is someone doing their job to the letter and not giving free stuff or discounts when demanded. Bad Customer Service is not ignoring the customer you are dealing with and jumping right to the important one.

Of course, these folks fail to notice that the one thing that's repeated over and over again is the Bad Customer part.

(Okay, so service was repeated too. I don't actually know what the hell I'm talking about)

[blas]

Good customer service requires good on both ends. Over worked or badly treated employees are not inclined to go out of their way and are often forced to fake kindness, and overly entitled and idiot customers are not inclined to be polite or reasonable.

[Captain Trips]

Good customer service implies good customers.

I once had one of our managers call to get some help selling product and overriding the requirement to be paid for said product. Her market director told her to call us "in order to give good customer service." Turns out the system required payment in full because they were over $1,000 into "NSF" status on checks they wrote. (Policy is to require a different form of payment if there's one NSF on the books.) The MD wanted me as a tech to override this "for good customer service." I said to the manager "Doesn't good customer service imply good customers? And good customers usually want to pay what they owe, don't they?" She replied with, "That's a good point. I'll call my MD back." I never heard of this again.

Good customer service NEEDS good customers.

[Brojekk]

badly treated employees are not inclined to go out of their way and are often forced to fake kindness

You just put into words what I've been experiencing in the past few years. It seems the clientele our grocery store caters to has deteriorated drastically in the last few years and we get alot of "borderline criminal types" in our store.
I've had alot of bad experiences with them, verbal and mental abuse. They seem to have some kind of superiority attitude and are often extremely arrogant. Even alot of the "upper class" people are the same way. Society as a whole isn't the same as it was when I started working there almost 30 years ago.
Much like Blas was saying, I seldom if ever go out of my way much anymore in the way of customer service. There's a handful of people that I'll help every time.But generally I won't go out of my way.

[greek_jester]

Whatever happened to good manners?

I have never worked in retail or any other job that requires extensive contact with the general public. I never want to, as I would suck at it. I don't suffer fools gladly, & can only take so much before I can't keep my mouth shut.

On the other hand, I am very careful to treat anyone serving me as I would want to be treated. If I have to ask a rep in a shop for help & they're doing something like stacking shelves (never with another customer, that's rude) I'll apologise for interrupting them. I always say please & thanks you, & try to smile & greet them (unless I'm very tired/ill/grumpy, in which case silence & me go together very well). I wait my turn at checkouts. If there's a problem, I always explain what it is clearly & concisely, & ask how we can settle it. If I'm staying away from home, I always leave things neat & tidy, rubbish goes straight in the bin, & the only time I ever created a mess was when I dropped my blusher & it spilled everywhere, at which point I went down to reception & asked for something to clean it up with (they sent a cleaner, who manager to clean it up without leaving a stain - yay for not losing my deposit!) Why is this so hard?

[Pagan]

On the other hand, I am very careful to treat anyone serving me as I would want to be treated.

Greek this is absolutely nothing to do with you, it's the phrase that really grinds my gears.

The concept of "serving". I think this is where SCs get some of their attitude. It sets up that whole "master and servant" dynamic and they seem to think that they're our "superiors" in some way.

I'm not your "servant", I'm there to "help" you.

Of course, there's the whole loss of common courtesy in general. But that's another rant for another time.

(I keep saying "we", but I don't have to deal with the general public at work anymore! After being in retail for 12 years, this is still a novelty to me.)

[greek_jester]

Greek this is absolutely nothing to do with you, it's the phrase that really grinds my gears.

The concept of "serving". I think this is where SCs get some of their attitude. It sets up that whole "master and servant" dynamic and they seem to think that they're our "superiors" in some way.

I'm not your "servant", I'm there to "help" you.

Sorry, didn't mean to step on your toes. I meant it in the 'providing a service' way (i.e. skilled or semi-skilled person doing something I can't), rather than the 'being a servant' way (i.e. doing something I'm perfectly capable of doing, but pay someone else to do).

[Pagan]

Sorry, didn't mean to step on your toes. I meant it in the 'providing a service' way (i.e. skilled or semi-skilled person doing something I can't), rather than the 'being a servant' way (i.e. doing something I'm perfectly capable of doing, but pay someone else to do).

Oh, no, no, no. I know that! And I don't mean you at all. I hear that phrase all over and it's just started to irk me more the more I think about it.

For some reason, people have been coming to the conclusion that if you work in anything other that a "real" job, i.e. an office, you're stupid, beneath contempt, and should bow to your betters.

It's like the people that you get that say, "Oh, I think it's terrible that you have to work on blah holiday," but yet, are there shopping nonetheless.

It's one of those things that hard to explain, but I know you mean and I can guess from your posts here that you're not that way.

It's alllllll good!