Customer Service

[Guest]

"Over the years I've had many other abusive customer including, a woman who worked for the local hospital who threatened both me and my supervisor by telling us that if we ever wind up in her hospital you'll be sorry! Another customer just because we couldn['t resolve his problem actually called me a "fat honkey." I was so suprised by the comment that I instinctively just kracked up laughing at him as while he was leaving and loud enough to make sure he heard me all the way out!"

I'm just dying for you to change your name on here to "Fat Honkey". I can still hear Richard Pryor on SNL.

I've called the cops on clients as well. In dealing with some of these clients, I always did a visual check of my seat to the door so that if I had to jump my desk and get out, I could... People who've serviced others for awhile recognize the problems quickly. One old guy I interviewed with as a college kid, jumped on the desk in front of me and started yelling. He was watching my reaction. It must have been right because he hired me. If you didn't want to pay the price for a customized finished product in his office, he had no problem walking up to you, tearing it in half and walking away.

This is one reason I don't like Amtrak to constantly furnish vouchers like handing out suckers. It should be tough to get one. There are 2 sides to every story and a lot of scammers out there.

 

[Hamhock]

As a customer, I've always applied the "honey" method of catching flies, as opposed to "vinegar", even in a complaint situation. The way I look at it is this: my bad experience has already happened; there's no point in making my situation worse by adding "AND ON TOP OF THAT, BLAH BLAH BLAH"s to my recollections. In bad times, why not just start making an absurdist mockery of the entire situation?

Here's a long-winded example of something I did:

Setting: U-Haul rental location in Jersey City, NJ, on Tonnele Avenue near the approach to the Holland Tunnel. Notoriously hideous customer experience.

I'm in a long, snaking line, and it's taken 25 minutes to reach the front counter. By now, I've heard everything (reservations screwed up, overbooked, trucks missing, no furniture carts, you get the idea), most of it shrieked back and forth. People flipping out, storming off, etc. I step up for my turn.

Me (carefree and happy): Hi! How's it going? I'm here to pick up my truck and furniture cart. Here's my reservation number!

Woman behind counter (wearily staring into computer): We have the truck, but no more furniture carts.

Me (smiling like I won the lottery): Wow! No more carts? Hmmm. And I have to move! *beginning to laugh* Hahahaha, what do you think I should do?

Woman behind counter (giggling at how strange I am acting): Um...let me see. *begins punching computer keys*

...and wouldn't you know it? There was a furniture cart for me.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

His response? Verbatim: "Well, I guess managers are only good for s***ing f***ing d***."
I think her response was entirely justified: whirling around, she said, "Sorry, sir, but if you want a car, you're going to have to shut your f***ing mouth." She grabbed his keys and rental contract, spun on her heels, and walked off. He was left standing dumbfounded.

I doubt I'd get the same comment, unless the ninny donkey was of abnormal preferences, but if I got one I'd probably just crack them across the mouth. (This is why GML does not work in the service industry!)

 

[amamba]

All of these service anecdotes are lovely and quite amusing, but I would like to reiterate that if Amtrak did hire mystery shoppers, they wouldn't be "problem" customers like the ones mentioned in the stores above. They would go out of their way to let the amtrak staff drive the interactions. They might have one "problem" during the trip to test the reactions, but it would be a reasonable, believable problem, like they need their bed set up early/late in the sleeper, or they need some ice.

The whole point of mystery shopping is to provide an example of the average customer experience, so the shopper is trained to be low key and fly under the radar screen. They also want to be so nondescript that the staff can not remember who the shopper is after reading the report.