If you work in customer service, you don’t need anyone to tell you that people can be a little unpleasant at times. The majority of those that you come in contact with on a daily basis are going to be fine or perhaps even pleasant but the person that blows their top and goes out of their way to make you miserable is the one that is going to stand out in our mind. Perhaps that is what was taking place in the following fictional story, when an employee teaches us something their boss understands that we can use in life.
(My boss is wonderful. He directs his staff to use one word responses when a customer gets unreasonable, and to hit the ‘panic’ button a monitor that pipes the conversation through to him. Conversations like this still happen, but at least it’s all handled.)
Customer: “This is ridiculous! I had to wait in line for 15 minutes! Why couldn’t you serve me earlier?”
Me: *hit the button* “Sorry, sir. There were other people in front of you. How can I help you?”
Customer: “Give me a [Product], and I want a 20% discount!”
Me:”Sorry, sir, I can’t do that, and there is no reason to; this is normal business. Waiting in line is an everyday matter.”
Customer: “Yes, you can. Give it to me or I’ll have your job! You worthless minimum wage trash.”
Me:*going into DefCon mode* “Can’t.”
(This is where my boss’s one-word strategy works so well. Irate customers can easily ignore a sentence, but it’s hard to mis-hear a single word.)
Customer: “Can’t? Of course you can! What do you mean, can’t?”
Me: “Can’t”
Customer: “Why not?”
Me: “Orders”
Customer: “Whose orders?”
Me: “Boss:”
Customer: “Well, get me your boss then!”
Me: “Okay.” (My boss comes out.)
Customer: “This employee was being extremely rude to me! I demand my purchase for free, or at least with a big discount!”
Boss:”No.”
Customer: “No? What do you mean, no? She was being rude!”
Boss: “Not rude.”*okay, sometimes you have to use two words*
Customer: “Yes, she was!”
Boss: *points to monitor* “Monitor.”
Customer: “What?”
Boss: “Heard you.”
Customer: “So?”
Boss: “Not rude. No discount.”
Customer: “The customer is always right! Why not?”
(Once we get to this point, my boss has a standard spiel.)
Boss: “Five good reasons.”
Customer: “Huh?”
Boss: “Five good reasons why you’re not getting a discount.”
Customer: “What? What are they?”
Boss: “One: I don’t have to. Two: I don’t want to. Three: There’s no reason I should. Four: You can’t make me. Five: I’m not going to.”
Customer: “I’m never coming here again!”
Boss: “You should have said that before. If you’d have said that if I gave you a discount, you would promise to never come back, I might have given it to you.”
(The customer left. Case closed.)
