42 replies to this topic

[chester]

I was thinking of this thread as I took a call tonite. Guy was upset about something on his bill. Call started with him threatening to call the Public Utilities Commission and the local newspaper to do a story on how we (I work for a big company) will do anything to screw people like him over. I listened to him, apologized, took some swearing (minor), apologized more and told him that I understood why he was upset. The call took 20 minutes and at the end he told me that while he didn't see on his bill exactly what he wanted to see, I explained it to him enough that he understood and more importantly believed me because I took the time to go over it with him and explained everything I could. He thanked me before hanging up.

My point is, sometimes you have to take the b1tching and apologize for it even though you know he's wrong. If I would have just came right out and told him why he was wrong it would have backfired. Now, he hangs up knowing he got his point across and won the argument because I apologized repeatedly for the situation. And most importantly, I didn't take it personally or feel like I'm ki$$ing his a$$ just because I had to apologize for his mistake.

And, yes, these situations apply differently when you will be dealing with the same person personally in the future, but he is still going to deal with somebody in our company and I am their voice.

[frenzal rhomb]

jetsfan, on 20 June 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

As someone with a doctorate, this is always a great place to start any discussion

needless to say my two letters to him wen out addressed to

Dear Mr. Ahole

[frenzal rhomb]

chester, on 20 June 2012 - 11:38 PM, said:

I was thinking of this thread as I took a call tonite. Guy was upset about something on his bill. Call started with him threatening to call the Public Utilities Commission and the local newspaper to do a story on how we (I work for a big company) will do anything to screw people like him over. I listened to him, apologized, took some swearing (minor), apologized more and told him that I understood why he was upset. The call took 20 minutes and at the end he told me that while he didn't see on his bill exactly what he wanted to see, I explained it to him enough that he understood and more importantly believed me because I took the time to go over it with him and explained everything I could. He thanked me before hanging up.

My point is, sometimes you have to take the b1tching and apologize for it even though you know he's wrong. If I would have just came right out and told him why he was wrong it would have backfired. Now, he hangs up knowing he got his point across and won the argument because I apologized repeatedly for the situation. And most importantly, I didn't take it personally or feel like I'm ki$$ing his a$$ just because I had to apologize for his mistake.

And, yes, these situations apply differently when you will be dealing with the same person personally in the future, but he is still going to deal with somebody in our company and I am their voice.

I wasnt dealing with btching - I was trying to do my job and the guy was too busy making a point of how important he was and as I pressed on to gather information, he became upset that  I didnt care about his greatness.

[chester]

frenzal rhomb, on 21 June 2012 - 03:26 AM, said:

I wasnt dealing with btching - I was trying to do my job and the guy was too busy making a point of how important he was and as I pressed on to gather information, he became upset that  I didnt care about his greatness.

Sorry, I wasn't comparing to your situation specifically, just addressing the dealing with the public thing.

[buddahj]

I'm in sales/customer service & have always beleived that everyone should be required to work in customer service for a year. I'm sure these arse-holes would act differently if they had to be on the other end of the bitch-fest.

[buddahj]

Oh, I'd also like to show up at their place of employment & hurl obceinities @ them.

[stevegrab]

buddahj, on 21 June 2012 - 08:05 AM, said:

I'm in sales/customer service & have always beleived that everyone should be required to work in customer service for a year. I'm sure these arse-holes would act differently if they had to be on the other end of the bitch-fest.

Customer service can be many things other than doing these kinds of phone support that have been discussed. Working in retail you deal with customers and their attitudes all day. Waitresses, clerks in stores, etc.  I worked in a grocery store in college, first bagging and then stocking shelves. Dealth with the public a lot and learned how to deal with it.

[cliaz]

tazinib1, on 19 June 2012 - 07:54 PM, said:

Tom Sizemore treated me like that on our first movie together. The 2nd moviie I told him to go frack himself. Our 3rd movie, he treated me like a brother...he still calls me a craqckhead for smoking menthols....kinda calling the kettle black there dontcha think?

You still owe me a pair of panties signed by him

[Lady.hawke]

I am not sure what compelled me to read this thread. I am reminded of a question my daughter was asked during her interview for her current job in Hotel management.

The question was, "How would you deal with a customer that no matter what, cannot be pleased?"

Her answer, which I think is brilliant was, "You just do the best you can. You may succeed, you may not. But, at least you can feel good about yourself and appreciate your effort."

Some people just cannot be pleased. I hope this helps.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Lady.hawke, on 21 June 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

I am not sure what compelled me to read this thread. I am reminded of a question my daughter was asked during her interview for her current job in Hotel management.

The question was, "How would you deal with a customer that no matter what, cannot be pleased?"

Her answer, which I think is brilliant was, "You just do the best you can. You may succeed, you may not. But, at least you can feel good about yourself and appreciate your effort."

Some people just cannot be pleased. I hope this helps.

I think that is very wise.  I hope she got the job.

[detlef]

If I had a dollar...

Once upon a time, it was as easy as just taking the BS and moving on.  Now that everyone is looking for an angle or a hand-out, you need to walk the line between staying respectful to someone who is anything but that to you, but still making sure you don't trip over yourself apologizing for crap that's not your fault or, at very least, is nowhere near a big enough deal to warrant the hissy fit that you're enduring.  Otherwise, a guy in my position ends up giving away all his profits.

Now, when we do mess up and the person is even remotely civil about it?  I'll comp the hell out of them and often end up with a loyal customer.  But, if they're a total and complete ass, my only goal is to avoid them making a scene.  There's a decent chance they're never coming back and, if they're going to lose their crap over the types of things I'm talking about, so be it.  There was a WSJ article once that explained that these types of customers make up such a small segment of the market that they're not actually worth it to your bottom line.

Ultimately, however, I still think that staying as cool as you can is the best defense.  It allows you to walk away knowing that only one of you is a total a-hole.

ETA:  Then I blow off steam by coming here and picking fights with Bronco Billy or trashing religion.

Edited by detlef, 23 June 2012 - 08:03 PM.

[whomper]

I am too lazy to type this whole story but I saw this first hand the other day and although I wasnt involved , I wanted to actually beat the God complex guy bloody. I seriously wanted to violently choke this arrogant POS. I raraely bow to people and I am in sales. I kiss ass when I have to but when people try and CHIPS AHOY! on me I fire right back. It blows their mind when they are a hugh account . I go above and beyond for my accounts but dont try and bully me. There are times when my company screws something up and I have to let someone unload and vent a bit but when people try and pull major rank I fire back. My boss is always on CC when its a major account of mine and most of the time , after I fire back, he sends me a private email that says "Well said"

[bpwallace49]

Lady.hawke, on 21 June 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

I am not sure what compelled me to read this thread. I am reminded of a question my daughter was asked during her interview for her current job in Hotel management.

The question was, "How would you deal with a customer that no matter what, cannot be pleased?"

Her answer, which I think is brilliant was, "You just do the best you can. You may succeed, you may not. But, at least you can feel good about yourself and appreciate your effort."

Some people just cannot be pleased. I hope this helps.

I will pray for your daughter. It is a god forsaken career she has chosen, with plenty of grief from clients. I sincerely wish her the best of luck.

[Pope Flick]

buddahj, on 21 June 2012 - 08:06 AM, said:

Oh, I'd also like to show up at their place of employment & hurl obceinities @ them.

I'm sympathetic, but to a point: AT&T overcharged me for 5 straight months. That's 5 months in a row I had to spend a 15-40 minutes fixing my bill. After the third one, the level of incompetence was so evident that I started my calls pissed off and only got angrier. Bet your ass I cussed. I was getting ripped off repeatedly.

It's been 3 months since they've screwed it up but if you customer service for a company that cannot get it together then you owe it to roll chit uphill to your supe to get things done. Otherwise, you're seen as a part of the problem by the customer.

[delusions of grandeur]

To those who say that they don't take crap and their boss supports it, then that's awesome, and I'm glad you have a job where your boss doesn't let his employees take crap just for a sale...

But I guess my point is that it's really up to your boss how they want you to behave towards a customer, not you... Maybe it's like whomper and they're fine with you telling them off, or like det and have them call in the boss/manager to deal with it (what most companies do), but none but the former is justification to handle it yourself and fire back at them.... Your employer is the one who has a vested interest in how the business is run, and so that's where I completely support them to say, "no, the customer is always right", because they're their customers, not yours. You have to respect that over your personal pride when it comes to customers/strangers, when they're paying you to work in their interest. It's a slap in the face of the one who writes your paychecks if you do what you want to do over what they want you to do...

Further, usually why they have you send complaints to a supervisor/manager is because they are usually there to reconcile the situation (or even politely tell them how it is)  without getting rude or taking it personally.

Edited by delusions of grandeur, 24 June 2012 - 03:07 PM.

[Chavez]

cliaz, on 20 June 2012 - 10:03 PM, said:

When you deal with someone like that who just berates you and is nasty one of the best things to do is remain very calm and keep an even tone to your voice and over-agree to everything they say.  It drives that personality type crazy.

When I was younger , I used to think you could out ahole these sorts of people.


Now, I'm with the person who said kill them with kindness - about as snarky as I'll get is asking someone after they let loose on me "OK, do you feel better about yourself now? Can we start doing a 2-way communication?"


Most times (and I'm not technically a "customer service rep" but customer relations are a huge part of my job), step 1 is get them to clarify what the problem is; step 2 is to agree with them - even if you didn't do anything wrong, I tend to go with "oh, I see, you thought THIS happened - I'd be pissed about that too; what actually went on is....", or whatever - get them saying "yes" and feeling like the two of you are on the same side); step 3 is tell them what you are going to do to rectify the situation (if needed; oftentimes by the end of step 2, things are cool - at least in my line, most of the time it's due to misunderstanding or mistaken identity as opposed to anything I did "wrong").

[Chavez]

chester, on 20 June 2012 - 11:38 PM, said:

I was thinking of this thread as I took a call tonite. Guy was upset about something on his bill. Call started with him threatening to call the Public Utilities Commission and the local newspaper to do a story on how we (I work for a big company) will do anything to screw people like him over. I listened to him, apologized, took some swearing (minor), apologized more and told him that I understood why he was upset. The call took 20 minutes and at the end he told me that while he didn't see on his bill exactly what he wanted to see, I explained it to him enough that he understood and more importantly believed me because I took the time to go over it with him and explained everything I could. He thanked me before hanging up.

One thing about profanity - I don't get too rankled about it unless it's directed directly at me - in my mind, there's a big difference between someone telling me a situation is f'in b.s., and someone telling ME I'm f'in b.s. The first is blowing off steam, the second is like "back up a sec there, pardner."


As for the bolded, that's a pretty successful resolution - he may not be happy, but he understands the situation, which means you did YOUR job perfectly. And the apology is always a nice surprise at the end of a call/situation like that, isn't it?

[nuke'em ttg]

look them straight in the eye and say "why don't bic lighters last as long as they used to"