I must say it's interesting reading the differing points of view in this thread, part of the reason I enjoy this site. Add me to the crowd of people thinking the customer was sucky. Probably in how I read the post and related it to my own experiences. Similar thoughts run through my mind as I help bothersome customers, but I maintain my fake professional smile and demeanor.
I agree that some customers are ingnorant and don't intend to be sucky. I can be forgiving, especially if you act nicely. But by the end of the day I am exhausted, stressed, and find it hard to hide my irritation in frustrating situations. At the very least, this customer was indeed frustrating, which would be enough to earn my ire. The good news is, I don't take out my frustrations on the largely unsuspecting (and sometimes really annoying) public.
By the end of the post, something bothered me even more than the lies the customer spouted (not really a customer though, since he didn't purchase anything). Our company has distributors whose job it is to sell our product. Yet some of them can't be bothered to learn even the most basic details of our product line. Many of the calls I answer are for simple product/pricing-related questions that could easily be answered by opening our price list and taking their standard discount. But they find it easier to speak with us and have us spoon-feed the information. Most of our distributors are terrific, but a few specific ones call over and over for information already available to them.
I sympathize with the aggravation the OP felt after handing the step-by-step instructions to the non-customer. Our department will sometimes forward pricing information to our distributors when they call for basic information. This is done in order to teach them to look things up for themselves. It's a slow, painful process, but so worth it in the long run, since my answering simple questions over and over is not very productive. Please understand our company really does want to take care of the customer and help them when needed. We are actually very good at what we do and our business relies on our distribution, after all. But we are also not babysitters and some of our customers are just lazy.
Wow, that was a lot from me. Sorry for the length.
I agree that some customers are ingnorant and don't intend to be sucky. I can be forgiving, especially if you act nicely. But by the end of the day I am exhausted, stressed, and find it hard to hide my irritation in frustrating situations. At the very least, this customer was indeed frustrating, which would be enough to earn my ire. The good news is, I don't take out my frustrations on the largely unsuspecting (and sometimes really annoying) public.
By the end of the post, something bothered me even more than the lies the customer spouted (not really a customer though, since he didn't purchase anything). Our company has distributors whose job it is to sell our product. Yet some of them can't be bothered to learn even the most basic details of our product line. Many of the calls I answer are for simple product/pricing-related questions that could easily be answered by opening our price list and taking their standard discount. But they find it easier to speak with us and have us spoon-feed the information. Most of our distributors are terrific, but a few specific ones call over and over for information already available to them.
I sympathize with the aggravation the OP felt after handing the step-by-step instructions to the non-customer. Our department will sometimes forward pricing information to our distributors when they call for basic information. This is done in order to teach them to look things up for themselves. It's a slow, painful process, but so worth it in the long run, since my answering simple questions over and over is not very productive. Please understand our company really does want to take care of the customer and help them when needed. We are actually very good at what we do and our business relies on our distribution, after all. But we are also not babysitters and some of our customers are just lazy.
Wow, that was a lot from me. Sorry for the length.
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