What if I'm having a bad day?

[jrh215]

My company is going through this period of refocusing on taking care of our customers, policies be damned. Basically, as long as it's not illegal, we let anything slide. The rationale is that since the huge majority of our sales and profits come from our pharmacies, as long as it doesn't involve prescription drugs we don't care about anything else since we really have no high-ticket items on the sales floor. Return with no receipt? No problem. We're out of an item? Here--take this this other one for the same price. What about the possibility of being scammed? Well, that's ok because we wouldn't want to take the chance of offending an honest customer by "hiding behind policy".

So a couple of weeks ago we had to attend this meeting at our district offices about customer service. We got a few handouts, including one where there are some hypothetical situations to test how we would handle problems. I noticed in one of the scenarios the customer was upset about something and started calling the employee nasty names and was cursing at them for something that was not their fault. Of course the "right" response to that situation would be to remain calm, apologize, do what you can to take care of them, blah, blah, blah. What struck me was that we're always told that when customers yell or curse at us, it might just be because "they're having a bad day".

Why is that an excuse? I mean, I understand that sometimes shit happens that's beyond anybody's control and I could understand how a customer could be upset. But cursing and yelling is somehow acceptable if they're having a bad day? What if we tried that line? Let me try telling someone I don't care or that they're acting like an asshole, then just saying to my bosses, "Oh, it's ok--I was just having a bad day."

Regardless of what I'm told is the "right" thing to do, I always tell my employees if someone truly crosses the line, feel free to throw all courtesy and helpfulness out the window and then make an attempt to apoligize to any decent customers who witnessed it. If anything bad comes their way, I'll back them up.

I get the feeling I'm selling my soul everyday I go into work....

[KMMCurly]

By the way that you told your employees to ingnore that if a customer crosses the line I'd say that your soul remains unbought. Have you considered the possobility that ever time you go to a mangement meeting they're stealing a small part of it?

[Nakajo]

Damn, I hate that. Our company is exactly the same way, with some exceptions. If someone breaks a major rule or is exceptionally rude or something (like throwing things, and swearing TONS) they get a note on their account so others can watch out for them.

We'll call the cops in extreme cases, and they're usually there within 2 minutes because they KNOW if we call, it's bad.

[the lawsmeister]

My company is going through this period of refocusing on taking care of our customers, policies be damned. Basically, as long as it's not illegal, we let anything slide. ..

Bloody hell that's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.
Let me guess, the people making this policy never have to deal with the morons who will take advantage of it. I think I'd prefer to deal with a company that treats its staff well rather than let them be abused and walked all over by idiot customers who were "having a bad day"

I agree with Curly, you're standing up for the rights of your staff members so your soul is well and truly safe.

[myswtghst]

We were taught in training that if a customer swears, we have every right to hang up. Granted, I only get upset if a customer swears *at* me, and even if they do, I tend to give a warning, then hang up if they do it again.

I completely agree with what you're getting at, though I will note one difference--you're getting paid to pretend you're having a super-fantastic day every day while working with idiots...I mean customers. This does not excuse profanity and infantile tantrums, but it does explain why expectations for you are different than those for customers, IMO.

[aurelemsrealm]

I'm glad I work for a company which preaches that we reserve the right to refuse a sale. Managment repeatedly tells us that they will back us so long as we follow policy, and they do. I've told several unruly customers to leave and not come back. Of course, they always try to come back with those pathetic threats about calling the office with the complaint or complaining to the manager. Yeah, blah, blah, blah..... I usually just tell them to go for it because I'll be sure to mention it, too, especially if I know the sucky customer in question. All the manager has ever had to say about any such complaints she's received is that they can go somewhere else if they don't like our rules.

[Bloodsoul]

What struck me was that we're always told that when customers yell or curse at us, it might just be because "they're having a bad day".

I say if the excuse can't be held up in a court of law, it shouldn't be held up in a store, either. "I know I nearly ran that pedrestrian over, judge, but I didn't mean to; I was just having a bad day."

[Polenicus]

Whenever I see policies like this, I get the image in my head of a clerk being held on the ground getting pounded by a rage-drunk customer, while the manager stands on the sidelines shouting helpful things like 'It's okay! He's just having a bad day! Remember to apologize! Follow your script! Follow your script!'

[XCashier]

I say if the excuse can't be held up in a court of law, it shouldn't be held up in a store, either. "I know I nearly ran that pedrestrian over, judge, but I didn't mean to; I was just having a bad day."

That makes an interesting scenario...

SC: I know it's against the law to beat up someone, but I beat up that store clerk because I was having a bad day.
JUDGE: Well, I'm having a bad day too, so how about I give you the electric chair?
SC:
JUDGE: No, I have a worse sentence. Five years, working in the store you committed the offense in. You get to deal with customers just like you every day!
SC:

Whenever I see policies like this, I get the image in my head of a clerk being held on the ground getting pounded by a rage-drunk customer, while the manager stands on the sidelines shouting helpful things like 'It's okay! He's just having a bad day! Remember to apologize! Follow your script! Follow your script!'

Scary as that sounds, I'm sure it's happened before. IIRC, there have been a few stories like that on this board. Sure, the SC might be mad at the company, but it's MY blood that's dripping on the floor!

[Becks]

How come it's permissible for SCs to have a bad day, but employees can't (even if the e's bad day isn't even as close to the SCs')?

[Aldous]

How come it's permissible for SCs to have a bad day, but employees can't (even if the e's bad day isn't even as close to the SCs')?

Because we have a duty to fulfill, and we have to be cheerful, and all smiles, even if our dog was hit by a car. We're robots, we're not allowed to have emotion. Except for HAL. We're still waiting for HAL to free us from our shackles. That being said this has been a sarcastic comment and should not be taken seriously, doing so may result in signifcant damage to the frontal cortex, eardrum, or any other random bodypart. You have been warned.

[AFpheonix]

I swear, it's just gotten worse since our namby-pamby new CEO took over. God, what a pussy that man is.
Cuss at me? I give you your prescription back. Cuss at me over the phone? I give you one warning, then I hang up. I present the customer with a standard of behavior, and if they want to continue receiving the stellar service they get at our location, then they get to meet said standard.
What our chain apparently hasn't figured out is that if you do correct the bad behavior presented by SCs, many times they become normal, productive customers minus the sucky. If they can't handle that, then I'm really ok with them no longer being our customer. Added bonus, they don't make the other customers uncomfortable.

As an example, I had one guy who was cussing at me over the phone like there was no tomorrow. I corrected him, he stopped the bad behavior, he is now a decent customer as he knows there are expectations on our part, and we provide him with stellar service.
On the other hand, we have one awful old man who has been kicked out of the pharmacy twice now due to being a racist asshole. He only gets 2, maybe three scripts.
He threatened suit, and corporate made us take him back.
Guess what? It wasn't long that we had another incident, this time involving a computer error on the part of his medicare part D plan. The insurance company thought he was in his coverage gap, he insisted that he wasn't. That's fine, go home and duke it out with your carrier, as we really have nothing to do with setting copays.
Of course, he wasn't going to be that reasonable, he decided to park his old wrinkly ass in the pharmacy for 2 FUCKING HOURS, screaming at the poor pharmacist who was brand new out of school, plus our poor, sweet extern, that we were "defrauding him". They called the pharmacy helpdesk of his carrier, who confirmed what we were seeing, and the old asshole accused her of lying and that she really didn't work for his carrier.
In the end, he wrote a letter clear up to our pussy CEO, the pharmacist went home late and physically ill from the stress inflicted by that awful man, and he's unfortunately still a customer here.
Just because corporate does not have the testicular fortitude to tell this old fart to fuck off and go to Rite Aid.

[Talon]

That "training" sounds like this stupid question I encountered when studying for the A+ exam. A customer gets upset that his data was lost and shoves you against a wall. The "correct" answer according to the book was to try and calm the customer down, leave the premises if you can't. Not a thing about calling security/police, or getting witness statements. I particularly love the counter-argument to shoving the customer back: "Physical abuse violates respect."

AFphoenix, if your CEO's that much of a rubber-spine, maybe three little words will get him to fall in line with reality. Let's all say it together: Hostile Work Environment.

[AFpheonix]

Supposedly there's an employee feedback thing on our store intranet, but interestingly enough, they didn't give a specific address for the thing, and I can't seem to find it with the search function.

Too bad, I had a pretty good treatise that I was planning on sending on to the weenies in corporate.

[Nakajo]

JUDGE: No, I have a worse sentence. Five years, working in the store you committed the offense in. You get to deal with customers just like you every day!
SC:

I think there needs to be a law that makes everyone work retail, food service, or customer service of any kind for at least one year, so that way they'd get a decent appreciation for the people like us who deal with SC $#!^ trying to make an honest dollar.