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Now I remember why I hated customers
It's not very often that I have a new "Sucky Customers" story to tell, since I got out of retail about 25 years ago. Anything new I post is usually a "Sighting", or sometimes "Cursing out Coworkers" or "Morons in Management." While I'm not in customer service anymore, and god willing, I never will be again, my wife and I do volunteer for cats with an animal shelter, and this particular organization has locations that are in pet stores. So when we volunteer, we do found ourselves around customers.
We've never really had any problems with the customers before. We don't even really have to deal with them at all if we don't want to. We're just cage cleaners, and the manager even told us we don't have to let anyone into the adoption center if we don't want to. We can say, "Sorry, we're cleaning." But we've never refused to let people in, no matter how busy we were. After all, we'd like to see these cats go to a good home, and what better way for that to happen than to let them come in and play with the kitties? Besides, we don't spend all our time cleaning. We play and socialize with the cats for awhile before we actually start cleaning. We usually do one or two Saturdays a month, and come in awhile the manager is still there. We talk and spend time with the cats, find out what needs to be done, and then the manager leaves, and we spend a little more time with the cats, clean up, lock up the cages, and leave.
Up until today, the few customers we had to interact with were not a problem. We had one a few weeks ago that thought we worked for the store and had questions about products, but a simple, polite explanation that we worked for the organization and not the store cleared things up. Anyway, one of the cages has a pair of kittens that are littermates, and they get a little nuts sometimes. These kittens are about halfway between kittens and adult cats, so they're big like cats, but hyper like kittens. And it's not uncommon for them to have their cage trashed five minutes after we or another volunteer has it cleaned and straightened up.
It happened today, just as we were moving everything out of the adoption center so my wife could sweep and mop, and I could throw out the trash. My wife said something like, "Not again! I don't believe this! Look at this! Thanks a lot, guys!" She didn't yell, although she tends to speak a little loudly, and she wasn't mad at the cats, just a little amused and frustrated at the same time.
Just as I came back from throwing out the trash, and I sat down to write in the log book (writing about the cats, how they were doing, anything cute they did, such as when one of the kittens jumped into the sink and stared at the faucet until I turned it on a trickle so she could drink from it), a lady approached us and asked if we were volunteers. My wife told her yes, we were, and the lady went on her way. I didn't think anything of it -- I figured she had a question about the store and thought maybe we worked for the store, and went on her way when she found out we didn't. A few minutes later, the store manager came to us and told her, "We've had a complaint." Apparently someone told her we were "yelling at the cats", and using inappropriate language. We're almost certain it was the one who was asking us if we were volunteers. I explained to her that we weren't yelling at the cats, just expressing mild frustration that they had trashed the cage that we fixed not even five minutes ago, and that I didn't think either of us had said anything inappropriate, but that if anything slipped out, we're sorry.
I'm not sure how much the manager believed us, because she went into a lecture about how we "represent (the organization), and (the store)", and that we need to have patience with the cats. I was getting a little annoyed with her at that point, and I told her I know you have to have patience with cats, that we love cats, and we've had many cats over the years. The manager left, and we finished up what we were doing, and left.
While I'm somewhat annoyed by that interaction, and the fact that the store manager took the customer's side 100% and didn't really listen to our side, and talked down to us like we were kids, my wife was really upset. Actually, she still is. She's been in a bad mood ever since we left, and she says she's not sure she even wants to come back, and people like that are why it's hard to get people to volunteer for anything. I told her that the store manager only talked to us because she got a complaint, and that she shouldn't let that bitchy customer get to her, because we'll probably never see her again.
I don't know if this is going to get to the manager of the organization or not, but hopefully she'll listen to our side of the story. We've been doing this for about a year and a half, and I'd like to keep doing it. We love playing and spending time with the kitties. The only downside to it is that we want to take them all home, especially the ones that nobody wants.
We've never really had any problems with the customers before. We don't even really have to deal with them at all if we don't want to. We're just cage cleaners, and the manager even told us we don't have to let anyone into the adoption center if we don't want to. We can say, "Sorry, we're cleaning." But we've never refused to let people in, no matter how busy we were. After all, we'd like to see these cats go to a good home, and what better way for that to happen than to let them come in and play with the kitties? Besides, we don't spend all our time cleaning. We play and socialize with the cats for awhile before we actually start cleaning. We usually do one or two Saturdays a month, and come in awhile the manager is still there. We talk and spend time with the cats, find out what needs to be done, and then the manager leaves, and we spend a little more time with the cats, clean up, lock up the cages, and leave.
Up until today, the few customers we had to interact with were not a problem. We had one a few weeks ago that thought we worked for the store and had questions about products, but a simple, polite explanation that we worked for the organization and not the store cleared things up. Anyway, one of the cages has a pair of kittens that are littermates, and they get a little nuts sometimes. These kittens are about halfway between kittens and adult cats, so they're big like cats, but hyper like kittens. And it's not uncommon for them to have their cage trashed five minutes after we or another volunteer has it cleaned and straightened up.
It happened today, just as we were moving everything out of the adoption center so my wife could sweep and mop, and I could throw out the trash. My wife said something like, "Not again! I don't believe this! Look at this! Thanks a lot, guys!" She didn't yell, although she tends to speak a little loudly, and she wasn't mad at the cats, just a little amused and frustrated at the same time.
Just as I came back from throwing out the trash, and I sat down to write in the log book (writing about the cats, how they were doing, anything cute they did, such as when one of the kittens jumped into the sink and stared at the faucet until I turned it on a trickle so she could drink from it), a lady approached us and asked if we were volunteers. My wife told her yes, we were, and the lady went on her way. I didn't think anything of it -- I figured she had a question about the store and thought maybe we worked for the store, and went on her way when she found out we didn't. A few minutes later, the store manager came to us and told her, "We've had a complaint." Apparently someone told her we were "yelling at the cats", and using inappropriate language. We're almost certain it was the one who was asking us if we were volunteers. I explained to her that we weren't yelling at the cats, just expressing mild frustration that they had trashed the cage that we fixed not even five minutes ago, and that I didn't think either of us had said anything inappropriate, but that if anything slipped out, we're sorry.
I'm not sure how much the manager believed us, because she went into a lecture about how we "represent (the organization), and (the store)", and that we need to have patience with the cats. I was getting a little annoyed with her at that point, and I told her I know you have to have patience with cats, that we love cats, and we've had many cats over the years. The manager left, and we finished up what we were doing, and left.
While I'm somewhat annoyed by that interaction, and the fact that the store manager took the customer's side 100% and didn't really listen to our side, and talked down to us like we were kids, my wife was really upset. Actually, she still is. She's been in a bad mood ever since we left, and she says she's not sure she even wants to come back, and people like that are why it's hard to get people to volunteer for anything. I told her that the store manager only talked to us because she got a complaint, and that she shouldn't let that bitchy customer get to her, because we'll probably never see her again.
I don't know if this is going to get to the manager of the organization or not, but hopefully she'll listen to our side of the story. We've been doing this for about a year and a half, and I'd like to keep doing it. We love playing and spending time with the kitties. The only downside to it is that we want to take them all home, especially the ones that nobody wants.
ruin this for her. The kitties need her!
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