Yeah, that's what I want... but never get it in a fast food joint.
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Customer Service
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Yeah, that's what I want... but never get it in a fast food joint.
HanC
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Fabs I know exactly what you mean! I've had that when being served in shops and it drives me mental. I've worked in several different retail environments and I can tell you I personally wouldnt have the balls to completely ignore a customer when serving them! Apart from being blatantly wrong from a customer service point of view, its completely wrong from a normal being polite and having manners point of view! Bad customer service really does get my goat...but then if you complain then you get accused of being a bad/grumpy customer!
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Flash In The Pan
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You've completely missed the point, Rick. Regardless of whether you, as an order taker, sales person, or whatever think, ultimately it is the customer that pays your wages, so if they say something is wrong, then it is, it's that simple.
The fact that you "(gave) out less refunds than other staff whilst not offending anyone nor getting any complaints" doesn't mean that you were good at your job, or even that you were right, it simply means the the customer didn't take the matter any further.
You don't know that you didn't cause offence, all you can say say with any certainty is that they didn't take the matter further. That's not the same thing.
I watched a car salesman attempting a sale to an elderly Sikh gentleman a while back and his sales talk was peppered with such gems as "did you have trouble 'sikhing' us out?" and other references to curry, turbans and so on. It was pretty obvious to me the the chap wasn't too happy about this and he made his excuses, left and never returned. "Timewaster" was the salesman's assessment...
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Uneducated_Rick
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If a customer says something is wrong, it is not. Customer orders an item from Argos, at the tills they asked if the number corresponds to the correct item, they ignore the person on tills to talk on their phone. Then at the counter when its the wrong item they have to go for a refund/exchange for the correct item. When giving them a refund politely explain why they are talked to at the till and that's its not just speil to be ignored. Ultimately the customer does not pay my wages, I would get paid whether that customer was happy or not - would you say that to a policeman about taxes or a doctor or dentist about national insurance?
By being calm and polite, and asking them if they were happy with my explanation I don't see how I could do any more.
Comparitively the people coming in and ranting at me and being stupid offend me, asking for a refund with no proof of purchase at all (not even a box with an Argos sticker on it!), but I don't have the facility to complain about them unfortunately
simonkit
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I think whilst this attitude might have some truth in the UK pretty much everywhere else you go it certainly doesn't.
Most of Europe/USA/Canada also pay poor wages, infact probably worse, but I'd say customer service is far beyond what we have here in the UK.. personally I think it's more a reflection about us as a nation than about the wages we pay.
Simon
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Yes it is, if the customer is unhappy or dissatisfied then you're not doing your job correctly
:bang:
Ultimately the customer does pay your wages - no customers, no Argos, no job, it doesn't get any simpler than that.
You may "get paid whether the customer is happy or not" but I'll bet a penny to a pound if you went up to the Area Manager and told them that then you'd be down at the Job Centre, testing out their customer service rather quickly
That's the nature of retailing, customers complain, you are paid to deal with it. If you don't like it get another job in a different field.
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I really don't think it has anbything to do with wages, even in this country. It's to do with attitude and you can bet if they are rude to customers when they are at work, they are probably just as rude outside of work. I think the difference between say, the UK and the US is that employers will tolerate rude staff far less in the US than over here.
Rozzy
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one of the hardest things to do is agree with a customer who is blatantly in the wrong, but at the end of the day, without their business, I would have no job, end of story, and luckily I also work for tips, which means that I put my own pride to one side now and again for the sake of my pocket, which is surely the point of working.
But, politeness and manners cost nothing, and some people dont have the muller!
a good customer service experience only occurs when both sides of the party connect, just like any human interaction, any ambiguity or misunderstanding on either side can escalate into something huge, which I have seen first hand.
Suck it up and smile!!
But, politeness and manners cost nothing, and some people dont have the muller!
a good customer service experience only occurs when both sides of the party connect, just like any human interaction, any ambiguity or misunderstanding on either side can escalate into something huge, which I have seen first hand.
Suck it up and smile!!
chrism_scotland
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I'd agree with that, I work for lets say a fairly large Utility company in a debt team in the call centre and trying to be polite to people who fine will know they owe money and will use any excuse not to pay it or try and get out of it is not easy!