It's not personal!

[Peppergirl]

Many of you who work customer service might be able to relate to this scenario, but I'm also throwing it out there to hear other side, too.

Say you're doing your job, and a customer just COMPLETELY takes their day out on you but stops just short of being abusive or cursing. Perhaps they're argumentative, or perhaps they interrupt you repeatedly. Perhaps they're just the typical SC who takes a simple 'no' and equates it to 'OMG! That clerk is RUDE".

Most of you can picture the type, I think.

Now. When I have this type of person on the phone, there is almost like a switch in my brain that disengages. I go on automatic pilot and only provide the most basic level of service that's required of me in order to keep my job. I am not out and out rude unless the person is abusive or has cursed me, but if they are being just a run-of-the-mill SC, I definitely don't go out of my way to do anything extra.

There are people out there that think this is wrong. They stop short of saying that clerks and customer service people should tolerate actual abuse, but they'll also say that *every* customer deserves the highest level of service, regardless of how they behave (short of abuse).

Another thing they'll say is, "Well - it's not PERSONAL. They're not mad at YOU, they're just mad at the situation. You can't stoop to their level and retaliate." Or, "Kill them with kindness!", or some other such nonsense.

Don't get me wrong, there are times that I've taken a somewhat crotchety, grumpy customer and turned them around. However, I can always tell by the tone at the beginning of the call whether or not they're just *always* an asshole or if they're simply having a bad day or are a little short or grumpy. I'm usually pretty good at turning these types around, but I consider it a challenge and I consider it *my choice* to 'kill them with kindness' and try to make them a good customer.

The point I'm making is that I resent the people who tell me that it's not personal and that everyone should be treated with 100 percent effort toward good service. If that's the case, what motivation is there for the good customers? I understand professionalism, but how can it not be PERSONAL if there is a PERSON you're interacting with?

To me, respect earns respect. If a customer calls and speaks to me professionally and courteously, and basically treats me like a fellow human being, I will move heaven and earth to help them. I've been known to go almost overboard in my service, simply because a customer was nice to me or treated me kindly. I've gotten letters of praise, cards and even gifts and flowers on occasion.

I don't earn any extra money for doing an extra good job, but I feel SO good when I help a nice customer out of a jam. It's a great feeling. Perhaps I'm not as jaded or cynical as I think or claim to be.

Ok. I've rambled enough. The reason I posted this here is because it's a new forum, and I figured this would be a great topic for debate.

I'm really looking forward to hearing your responses.

[ExRetailDrone]

I see it pretty much the way you see it. Sure, the person being confrontational and argumentative may not specifically be aiming their vitriol at me, I just happened to have the bad luck of being there, but it is still personal in a way. Like you stated, I am a person and if I am targeted by venom, I am not going to go out of my way to provide them excellent customer service. Why should I? If I ring up their order or help them find what they are looking for, I am doing my basic job tasks and as far as I am concerned, I am not required to do anything more. They obviously do not respect me enough to treat me like a human being, why should I give them more respect than is earned?

When I still worked in more of a retail setting, I would do as little as possible to help those curmudgeons. I would help them find an item if they were looking or ring out their order if I was on a register, etc. I would not chat it up with them or try to find rules I could bend just slightly to get to the result they wanted, however. I didn't feel that people who treated me so poorly deserved to be rewarded with extra service. And 'killing them with kindness' sometimes just does not work with those sorts. They will always find something to complain about, so why on Earth should I bust my ass to help them when all they'll do is whine about something else anyway? No thank you.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm with you, Peppergirl.

I figure the no-frills assistance is the baseline "100%" that everybody gets just for being a customer.

But, as with a diner giving a friendly and attentive waitress a good tip for providing a pleasant experience (even if it's nothing really all that special), a CS worker can give better service as a type of tip for customers who give the worker a better than average customer experience.

I like that analogy.

^-.-^

[aurelemsrealm]

I agree with you also. I'm not inclined to do more than the bare minimum required if they're not going to be appreciative. I'm not going to feel particularly respectful toward those who act disrespectfully toward me. In short, if you want me to show you respect, then act respectfully toward me. Even if I'm having a bad day, I don't take my frustrations out on people who have nothing to do with creating those frustrations. Why should I have to take crap from some random sucktomer when I'm working just because said sucktomer is pissed off over something that likely has nothing to do with me?

[Rantsylvania 6-5000]

EEEEEE, new forum!

OMG Peppergirl, I was just thinking about this subject the other day, and wanted to bring it up myself eventually.

I do the same as you, go out of my way for nice customers, do just enough to get by with the crotchety ones. I don't take it personally when they have legitimate gripes (long lines, nobody to help on the salesfloor, etc.), but it's still a turnoff when they yell at me.

But...

I hate when people tell me not to take it personally when it is personal. When they ask me if I'm pregnant, make a snarky comment about where I live (which came up during seemingly innocent small-talk), or the fever blister on my mouth, they've taken it out of the realm of business and made it personal. Any manager who tells me otherwise is just feeding me propaganda.

[Ginger Tea]

I'm purely a shopper, so I if anything would be on the other end of the phone, there I try and leave all unrelated stuff at the door.
I've only once lost it with whomever was at the other end of the phone, I made general enquireies about geting NTL tv and internet when I first moved down here late 03, next thing I know, I'm getting bills for it. After the a few telephone calls explaining the situation, I'm being billed and all I did was enquire, I don't have the set top box, they said they would clear it, then even later I got a letter informing me they would be sending the balifs round to collect the set top box.

DO WHAT?
I was pissed at that point, I was told it was fixed, I owed them nothing and had nothing of theirs to return, never did. Somewhere along the line it got mixed into the wrong collumn or there was no collumn that fit my circumstances, so normal procedure for unreturned hardware after X ammount of time was the balif. I was by no means polite and did over step the mark with the rep I was speaking to, and I'm not surprised they didn't cut the whole house off as one or two rooms had NTL installed and then blacklist the house from ever getting it again.
They did neither and I might have appologized for going off on the deep end, but to be confronted with balifs for their string of cockups just didn't sit right with me and never will.

Now NTL is Virgin Media and the land lord cabled up one room for broadband and every room that want's it has a cable running out of the router.

Most othe times I get called it's about my mobile phone contract, I had almost said yes to my yearly upgrade till he meantioned another carrier, normally I get contacted direct by mine, but this time it was an independant one and I had to be firm in saying
"no, I do not wan't this phone to be sent to me at all, not to even look at the pretty pictures on the box." Kinda sucks though, cos a month after that I broke the screen and needed a new phone and it turns out my provider no longer contacts you when you are due an upgrade and mine was due in feb last year and this was October, so I would have had a spare to work with. In the end I stumped up £200 for an iPhone 4 32gb on a 2 year contract with insurance this time.
Yet my first ever upgrade call deviated onto music, drinking, the price of beer here compared to there, I tbh had forgotten why I was on the phone in the first place.

When I'm in a supermarket, if I am in a foul mood (work normally and I pass a large 24 hour tesco on the way home) I, if anything, will just say hello, no to help packing and goodbye as no one outside of whats wrong deserves my mood shitting on their day, although days like those I go to the self service stands just incase unless I have age restricted products.
Any other time and I'm rabbiting for England

[lordlundar]

Anyone who rants then says it's nothing personal is lying. It IS personal for the simple fact that they're taking it personally. All it is is a very thinly veiled attempt to avoid being kicked out for abusive language/actions.

Tow when a representative of a business or something similar says this, unless unless you can prove that the business is exclusively targeting you, then it really isn't personal. It boils down to the answer that we love to give to EWs. You are not a special snowflake and the world must accommodate you. These people have more important things to do than pander to you or make your life hell.

[Peppergirl]

Good points.

I also think a lot of spineless managers and corporations have helped to breed this phenomenon.

There really isn't much call for a customer to be nice anymore. It's been shown too many times that the more they rant, rave and abuse, the more the company gives in to their demands.

My company can SUCK sometimes but I've never been called out on standing up for myself to a rude caller before, so I'm lucky in that regard.