Benefit of the doubt

[DrFaroohk]

I read once in some how to get along with people that the best thing to do is just assume that your customers are telling you the truth.

Say for instance a customer comes in and says "I bought this 12 pack of beer last night, but all the bottles were filled with water!" He's probably full of shit.

On the one hand, if you argue with him and investigate the situation, you may find out he was in fact scamming you, and you'll save your store some beer.

On the other hand, all that time you spent investigating and questioning and calling people was just a big waste of time, and now in the off chance he was telling the truth you haven't completely alienated him if you just accept what he tol dyou and give him free beer.

But then if he was full of crap, which he probably was, then you might as well just hang a "FREE BEER!" sign on your front door.

[Saydrah]

It's silly to give all customers the benefit of the doubt.

Now, say, if it were a regular customer who's never been any trouble and has been shopping there for ages, maybe; but Joe Schmoe off the street? Nope. To their face you can pretend you're giving them the benefit of the doubt-- "Hmm, water? That's terrible! I'm sorry to hear you had a problem. Unfortunately, due to corporate policy, we're going to need some sort of proof. You didn't open all the bottles, did you? If you bring in one still sealed that's full of water, I'll gladly give a refund or replace the product."

But that doesn't mean you have to ACT in the way you would if you truly believed he was telling the truth-- i.e., give free beer. Sound sympathetic, but don't give away anything but a smile without proof.

[Automan Empire]

Some customers are so off base that they leave you no doubt from which they might benefit!

I've actually told people that... it is a good STFU tool when you are 100% certain.

-Automan

[Saydrah]

I doubt the benefits of giving the benefit of the doubt.

[taxguykarl]

With all the scammers I see, giving the benefit of the doubt is an effective way to get indicted as the IRS is going after tax preparers as well as tax cheats (those who knowingly or reckless help the cheats, you understand).

[the toy guy]

This reminds me of a news story I saw once.

A family had bought a new phone (I think it was a phone, it may have been some other electronic gadget) from a retailer. They got home, broke the seal, opened the box, and found:

A jar of peanut butter.

Naturally, they were rather unhappy about this, and brought the "phone" back to the store. The store manager assumed that they were trying to pull a particularly bad scam, and sent them away.

Weeks later, after much fuss, they were able to get the incident investigated, and it turned out that a factory worker had pocketed the phone and used the peanut butter to fool the scales.


The person you're dealing with probably is a scammer, but, if they come back, tell them to talk to the police. If it's a legitimate complaint, they are talking to the wrong people, and, if they are scammers, they will likely drop it.

[candyshopgirl]

I say it depends on the customer. If its a regular that causes no problems fine.Like the expired sprite,no problem get another one of the cooler. This is a customer every day for years.

But then the stale donut guy.Wheres the donuts.I threw them away(yeah right you ate them).never seen the guy and never have seen him since.


So I say it depends.

[KiaKat]

Everything in customer service is relative. Although there are the stereotypes (and the obvious examples), there are also people that come off as an EW, scammer, or some other 'general' type we've discussed here, even though they're just frustrated, pissed off, and usually trying not to take it out on the poor register monkey or disembodied voice.

Considering I've been in a mood today, I'm somewhat sympathetic to those poor schlubs who just want to have things go right, and have everything go wrong, instead.

[crazylegs]

This is essentially another way of saying 'The customer is always right', and we all know where that gets us.

[freeatlast]

When I worked in the Call Center from hell, customers sometimes received music CDs that were defective. If they contacted us to advise that they received a defective CD, we automatically processed a replacement at no charge and told them to throw away the defective copy. A scammer would have 1, maybe 2 defective replacements showing on their account during the course of a membership. However, I once had a call from a member who had at least 1 defective replacement for every order he had placed. Most of them were boxed sets that consisted of 4 or more CDs. Obviously a scammer. So when he told me that he had received another defective boxed set, I told him that I would send him a postage paid mailing label so that he could return the "defective" set for replacement. Of course, he told me that he had been told that the defective product "never" had to be returned. I informed him that the pattern of defective product on his account suggested that there was a problem of some sort. He then told me that he could not return the set because he had already sold it. That was when I told him that if it was good enough to sell, it could not be considered defective. I also informed him that the jig was up and that he would receive no more replacements unless we received the return of the product he considered defective. After he yelled at me about how it was "not fair" I placed a very detailed note on his account about his scam. Then I forwarded his account information to our fraud department who immediately cancelled his membership and flagged his name and addres to prevent him from re-enrolling on a new membership. I loved messing up his scam

[katie kaboom]

I read once in some how to get along with people that the best thing to do is just assume that your customers are telling you the truth.

Written by an SC no doubt.

[marasbaras]

I agree ... the best way to get along with customer is to ACT LIKE you are giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Always demand proof. A good customer will be able to provide it, a scammer won't.

In the rare case when a good customer isn't able ... you already know they're a good customer and should bend the rules for them (presuming a reasonable request) anyway.