Days like the one I had yesterday makes me really really hate working in customer service. I can deal with the monotony of asking the same questions and doing the same things day in and day out. I can even deal with people acting like they can’t read so I have to talk them through every.single.transaction even though I see them at least two times a week. But what I absolutely can’t deal with is ignorant people who regardless if you are doing your job correctly and efficiently might I add, still find something wrong with it. And everyone knows that the customer is always right. Yeah right.
My store gets busy. Like really busy, but it was fairly slow until about 1ish. That is when all hell broke loose and it seemed like everyone just gathered in the parking lot to come in at once. It was cool because I had help so me and my coworker were able to get the line down fairly quickly.
Then I see a woman sitting close to the line. She is not in the line, but she is sitting where a lot of people sit when they are waiting on their purchase to get ready.
Me: Hi, I can help you right here ma’am!
She briefly looks up from her phone, then back down as if she didn’t hear me speaking to her.
Me: “Hi, can I help you?,” I repeat knowing she heard me, but hey, I am doing my job.
Her: “Ummm…I am not in line,” she says with an attitude.
Me: “Okay, what’s the name?,” I ask thinking maybe I can check the progress of her purchases so she wouldn’t be waiting too long.
Her: “I just dropped it off,” she says with even more attitude.
I walked away and began doing some other work because clearly she didn’t want my help. All the while ignoring that she was saying something about me. I couldn’t hear it, but I saw how the girl with her turned back to look at me and I could see the expression on my coworkers face after she said something. No biggie.
When I turn around, guess who is there waiting in line? And she is smiling at me like a freakin’ baboon trying to act like she is ready to play nice. Ma’am you are not fooling anybody.
Me: Hi, what’s your name?
She gives it to me, but as I begin to look for her purchase, I was informed that it wasn’t ready so I relayed the message.
Her: “I knew it wasn’t ready,” she says sarcastically.
Again, I ignore it. My thing is this, what was the point of standing in line? You said you just dropped it off, I left it alone. Are you seriously just standing here to rub in the fact that you are right? Why? That seems a bit much, but whatever.
Another coworker end up ringing up her purchases because she could clearly see that I was annoyed. I went in the back to complete the woman’s purchases. All the while she is complaining to my coworker because she felt that I shouldn’t have even acknowledged her because she wasn’t standing directly in line? Really, where do they do that at? And why is that acceptable in any one’s mind?
Have we gotten to the point where it is almost the norm not to expect, appreciate or even offer quality customer service? What do you think?
