Striking back at customers - where do we draw the line?

[tabbyblack13]

If a person is willing to insult someone for one little issue then that person deserves to be insulted back. Yelling maybe a little overboard. I have worked in customer service and wanted to talk back many times.

[AFPheonix]

A lot of times stuff like that can be easily mitigated by communicating to the customer better. In this case, I would have asked to see the phone so I could see what kind it was, and then informed the customer that I was going to go look up what type of battery it needed.
You end up looking like you know how to do your job, the customer knows that you're doing something for them, you get them out of your face, everyone wins.

I see that sort of thing happen so often with different techs. If you can figure out a good way to phrase stuff to customers, learn when to add info and when it's ok to omit info (sometimes they aren't going to understand what all goes into some parts of the job, and trying to explain is just going to confuse and irritate them), and make it all seem pleasant, you can mitigate most customer blow ups. Of course, there are always going to be extremely unreasonable idiots, but still, by communicating effectively, you don't give them an ammo to try to do anything to you, and I find that being a rule stickler tends to make those asses go fill somewhere else.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

In my opinion, he did nothing wrong. Shouting is not the same thing as raising one's voice. He didn't say he shouted. He escalated the situation to get her attention and then said something she needed said to her.

If more people did this, fewer people would think it was okay to go around treating others with disprespect.

[Peppergirl]

Good points.

And in many ways, I blame spineless management and corporate honchos for giving in to entitled, unreasonable demands from customers.

They treat (or attempt to treat) workers like that because they CAN. So many in management don't stick up for their help when they're downright abused.

Makes me sick.

[smileyeagle1021]

I mostly have to side with Super Cashier on this one... less than professional yes... but I can understand him considering that a personal insult.
I will put up with a lot, calling me a liar or incompetent are two things that I won't put up with.
When I was at the call center I would tolerate being called a liar, because quite frankly, I was lying. Otherwise, you tell me I"m lying and it damned well is a personal insult... so far there is NOTHING in my life that has been safe from damage or theft. My car has been broken into, my home has been broken into, my bike has had it's lock cut, I keep track, so far I'm at $5,000 that has been stolen from me, and damnit, after losing so much there is NO WAY IN HELL that I will just give away my integrity (and my ungodly high property loss is why I think we need harsher punishment, I like the idea of cutting off thieves hands, but that's another thread).
ANd with the incompetent remark... feel free to tell me that you think that I need to learn more about my job, that I am poorly trained, that I am uneducated... fine, but I damn sure am not incompetent.

[powerboy]

I just love how some are saying that anyone who has anger management problems, that they should not be working face to face with customers. But if that is the only job that they can get. Then what?

[katie kaboom]

I just love how some are saying that anyone who has anger management problems, that they should not be working face to face with customers. But if that is the only job that they can get. Then what?

Well it's not even anger management problems so much as retail workers are still humans. We are not robots, we do have feelings, and those feelings SHOULD be respected.

I don't think he was out of line at all. I, most likely, would have raised my voice too. There is only so much abuse a person can take (and SHOULD take) before they are going to start fighting back.

If management would insist that the customers treat the employees with respect, working in retail wouldn't get the bad rep it gets now. As it stands, the fact that we have to be respectful to customers but they can treat us like crap and get away with it is just not right. Something needs to be done about it.

[DesignFox]

Thanks for the links and description everyone.

Personally, I probably would not have shouted at the customer. However, I don't think there was anything wrong with the words that were used.

SuperCashier tried to be helpful, and the EW's response was to call him incompetent. If I were in his shoes, I would have been highly insulted as well.

There's a lot of rudeness and bullshit I tolerate working with people. But being called incompetent or being told that I don't know how to do my job are things that anger me to the point of seeing red.

I am always honest and upfront with my customers (a rare thing in the sales world). Rather than BS a customer, I will be honest if I don't know the answer, and I will take the time to seek a resolution. To my mind, that's a big part of my job, and it's a damn sight better than lying to the customer or setting them up with the wrong product.

If they think I'm "incompetent" for doing that, then I tell them they can take their business to another store.

Other stores/reps I know of will gladly tell a customer the product will give them a blowjob if that's what they want to hear. And if they didn't listen to me to begin with, I won't help them out when they find out otherwise. OR if I'm feeling charitable, I'll resolve all their issues with an indirect "I told you so"

99.9% of the time I hold my rantings for when the customer leaves the store. Of course, there is that 1% that will push the wrong button on the wrong day and will get as good as they give (but I never curse or stoop to personal insults).

I've been working with the public for 10 years...it's taken that long to figure out how to stand up for myself, yet remain professional.

[McDreidel09]

I have yelled at someone who insulted fast food workers. I wasn't at work. I was at school and was the student aide for a freshman Algebra 1 class.

Oh man, I went off after he said "It's not rocket science. Can't any of you do your jobs right?"

I full on yelled at him about how I was sick of his mouth and how he needs to get a job in fast food and deal with little assholes like himself with a smile on his face because management says you have to take it up the butt from guys like him.

The teacher walked in on my rant. He let me go take a walk and get a drink to calm me down. Later on, he congratulated me for going off on the kid because this kid needed it and the teacher was sick of being hte one to do it.

This kid never spoke to me that way and the rest of the kids were scared of me.

So, I know what it's like to be insulted. Unfortunately, that incident is the only time I could ever go off on a customer. Management is too spineless to back their own employees up when a customer gets abusive.

[Bright Star]

Like I had said on customers Suck.com, NOBODY & I mean NOBODY in retail needs to put up with any kind of abuse from customers. You don't put up with that kind of nonsense from your family & friends, right? Then why put up with it from the general public?
There's no reason a customer needs to revert to shouting to get a resolution to a problem. It's not going to make the situation any better & it's going to make the retail person get on the defensive. We're not a bunch of mindless robots doing our jobs. We're people too & will react accordingly if treated with disrespect.
Most people being yelled at are going to yell right back even if it's in a retail situation where management frowns upon that reaction. I'm sorry but if you get yelled at long enough & loud enogh then rules be damned, you're going to put the moron in their place. The hell with what your boss says.
Most people in retail don't get paid enough to be abused.

[DesignFox]

<snip> Management is too spineless to back their own employees up when a customer gets abusive.

I'm lucky. I work for a small business. Since I don't work for "the man" I don't have to take shit from people. And my manager and our owner have been known to back employees in certain situations.

Hell, on a few occasions, the manager has jumped in and thrown the customer out before I even got around to standing up for myself.

Fortunately, we have a pretty good customer base. I don't have serious issues with people very often.

[Slytovhand]

I think it went too far (but then, granted, I've only worked in customer service type positions for only about 12 years, so maybe my opinion won't count as much...).

Firstly, and interestingly enough, the bit about her being Polish is relevant. Different backgrounds lead to different levels of expectation. If you were working in Germany (for example), then yes, not knowing that would be tantamount to not knowing your job, because you would be expected to know that sort of stuff if that's the department you were working in. I'm not so sure about how such things work over in Poland, but we all do have different expectations...

Raising your voice?? I wonder why? I mean, isn't that what we all consider sucky when it comes from a customer? Pointing fingers?? Well, in most cultures that's considered offensive, and even aggressive...so what's the difference here?

Now the argument went along ok until that point - but there are far more... better ways for that situation to have been handled (I was going to use another word there, but that would have been considered a personal insult, and the Mods would be on my back for it ).

"You're incompetent, and don't know what you're doing". Ok, fine, less time I have to deal with you... I'm not the one who's going to end up losing out!

Btw, I have caught someone out on that... only a few months ago. I was given a BS story by a customer (over the phone - I'm in a call centre), and I was gathering my evidence. He turned to his mate in the room and drops some line about me not knowing my job (?? really - not knowing, or not believing a word you're telling me???) and I told him I didn't appreciate being called that. He gave me this crap about "I wasn't talking to you"... I let him know it didn't go down well... he started shouting in the end... call terminated. Guess what - so were the 3 other calls he made to the call centre over the next few days...

I'd suggest - SuperCashier got aggressive, rather than merely assertive... and that's the line we're arguing over. Words yes - tone/expression no.

[Boozy]

I'm lucky. I work for a small business. Since I don't work for "the man" I don't have to take shit from people.

I work for multi-million subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar corporation, and I don't have to take shit from anyone either. There are good companies out there, if you're lucky enough to find one.

I actually took more crap when I worked at my sister's restaurant. She never asked me too, but it was generally acknowledged that every single customer counted if we were to get the business off the ground. The only time in the first few years that we told someone to pound sand was when they were making demands that would cost us more money than we'd ever get back from them.

[DesignFox]

I work for multi-million subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar corporation, and I don't have to take shit from anyone either. There are good companies out there, if you're lucky enough to find one.
<snip>

You are very lucky. Any big corporation I worked for as a peon (sales rep, photographer, etc) basically would let customers walk all over us- manager or not.

Oh, and god forbid you had a problem with your manager. One company, which I left because I was tired of being abused by management, claimed to have a hotline set up for employees who needed help sorting out work problems.

Not only was I told to "suck it up because it's my job," not only was I forced to give my name, location and employee number when this was supposed to be an anonymous hotline, but I was told to "go talk to my manager"- the person I was afraid of to begin with. Seriously, the switch operator was more sympathetic to me than the HR department. And the only reason I got through in the first place was because the operator kept trying to connect me, but when HR wasn't picking up, she personally ran down the hall and told them to answer their phones!

I have little faith in big retail services since that.

[SG15Z]

Hi, this is Super Cashier. I was the one who posted the story about me yelling at the customer. I would like to clear up a few things.

First off, allow me to acknowledge that I was indeed out of line when I started yelling. I lost my temper that time, and I was unprofessional for doing so. I usually just tell the customer not to talk to me in such a manner, and if they do not listen, I will just walk away and get a manager. For some reason, this particuler person got to me, and I lost control. Idiots like this lady are not worth my job.

I hope this clears everything up, and I look forward to posting more stories in the future.

That does clear things up. Sorry your thread got closed. While I do agree the yelling was unprofessional, I do understand why you yelled. It takes a while to learn to bite your tongue when it comes to insults, and thankfully people insulted me all throughout my childhood so I've learned to ignore them and rant about them later. It took years to get to that point, but I'm there. It takes a lot to make me lose my temper. A LOT.

Hope to see more posts from you Super Cashier!