customer services experiences

You would never have coped in the sixties. Shop staff hated children. They wouldn't fetch anything without a "If I get it, you are going to buy it!".

Adults were always served first, queues were immaterial for children, you were automatically last.

You got told off for not saying please or thankyou.

The worst was hairdressers. Always telling you to sit still at the slightest movement.

Ok, I am going to stop now.

I once went to build a bear workshop. it was busy with kids, so patiently waited my turn

when it got to my turn, the woman looked at me as if she'd just seen something that wasn't even meant to be in her store, and I'm stood their thinking oh.. what is it going to be this time? (because it's always something)

me: excuse me can I build a bear?

her: no

me: is their a problem?

her: actually, their is, and it's standing right next to me (not she, it)

me: I don't follow?

her: you're too old to build a bear. you're not 8. the carpark's that way (pointing out the door)

as I walked away she screamed after me it's people like you that keep the kids from their dreams!

Customer service on the phone is pulling up a chair, having something to eat and listening to that dreadful music. Oh ya, and hearing I am number 25...24....23....22......... in line...

Call centres.

It's even worse when it's the IT department of where you work LOL that is how it is in my case. They make me restart my computer a billion times even though my issue is with the remote connection on their end and not my computer lol they don't seem to understand that.

I completely agree with you Heather. I also believe that if you choose to move to a foreign country, you better learn the language of that country.

Oh yes, customers can be VERY interesting in their ideas.

I find them ok, as long as the question is one they expect, as I am sure they have a Q&A list. 

If it is a tricky question, solutions can take a long time.

Customers *wrinkles nose*

My approach to customer service is just to calmly state the facts and gauge their response before making a decision on action. There are so many different types of people. The ones that really grate to me though are those that regard the customer as stupid. That is most often the case in these big tech stores. With my background I can fairly easily go into any amount of detail on something as research is pretty easy these days so I do have a good idea on the issues before I visit the store, so to be told I should have tried this or that, or got someone to look, before I came just really gets my back up. I just stay calm, act dumb (even though I sometimes may know far more than they do) and resist any short-cutting. Keep em guessing! lol

From the other side, I used to hate answering the helpline at work as our customers (patients)sometimes demanded immediate response. Often not easy if it required a visit and they may be forty miles away. I found it difficult to handle sometimes as I hate phones and immediate response. I am slow thinking, liking to evaluate. It did get me on the carpet from time to time but the patient always came first and we did understand their sometimes very bad situations.

i've worked in customer service related jobs my whole life. i've had some pretty bad experiences with walmart and dillons. i try to be nice to customers at all times but sometimes they can be assholes. it is usually at that point where i have trouble keeping my cool. if you want good customer service sometimes you have to be a good customer. although i know some folks suck at customer service positions and have no business being in them.