God Bless the Customers

[jeni]

hahaha...penn and teller are really funny

david - what really irks me is...well, okay. the bakery closes at 6. that means i turn off all the lights and start cleaning things. consolidating donuts, sweeping and mopping the floor, etc. it really bothers me when, even though the full-service case light is off, and i'm sweeping, customers come up and bug me for something. reason being, i am trying to get my work done, and the bakery is closed. it bothers me even more when i'm trying to clean so i can take my break in 2 minutes, and paul is there waiting for me, and a customer comes up and takes up my entire fucking break talking to me about a cake they want in a week. reason being, i'm trying to LEAVE, as i should be OFF DUTY, and they are making it so that i cannot leave.

i do not understand, and honesty here will show, why a customer thinks it is OKAY to bother someone who is cleaning so they can get something written on a cake. for instance, if -I- were that customer, i would say "oh, that person is evidently busy closing, since i can see that all of the lights are off and they are not out here looking like they want to do customer service...so i will not bother them, and instead will write on my cake on my own." OR if i simply had a question for said employee, i would say "excuse me, i have a really quick question, and i hate to bother you but it will just take a second." and on the same token, if a customer were to say that to me while i was cleaning, i would be much less annoyed with them.

see where i'm coming from? it's not that they are being customers, it's that i have things to get done, or i will get in trouble, since we are not supposed to clock out ONE MINUTE past the end of our shift. seriously, if we could get overtime i wouldn't give a shit, but my managers make SUCH A HUGE DEAL about the whole overtime thing, that it really bothers me to do that.

you know that even when the maketable at pizza hut was broken down, if it was 10:57 we would leave the oven on and leave the doors unlocked so that if a customer came, we could fill their order. it's just a little different when i'm already closed and a customer comes up to me.

[jeni]

bear in mind that there has only been ONE time out of hundreds that i have turned a customer away while i was in the midst of closing, and i felt terrible about it even then. but there was no way i was going to work an 8 hour day without one break besides lunch.

Duh.

If you're closed, you're closed. There's a distinct difference between being closed and "Open 24 Hours".

[elSicomoro]

That "I'm irritated by customers" shit would happen at the restaurant I worked at in high school (1991-92). We closed at 11:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. Now, we were in a large strip mall next to a movie theatre. So, you figure a LOT of movies let out between 10 and midnight, so you're bound to get a few people in after a show.

Oh man...the cooks and the last server would get so pissed. One night, I think the customers could sense the pissiness, so they took their time...and stayed until after 12:30.

A situation like that happened to Rho and I about 6 months ago. We had went to El Azteca, which is a great Mexican restaurant in our area. We got there at 9:15 on a Friday night, and they close at 10. No problem, right? I mean, you figure we'll be done by 10 or shortly thereafter.

Well, the only problem I have with El Azteca is that it seems to take forever to get your food (at least 20 minutes). So, by the time we got our food, it was like 9:45. Then came the push. It was hard enough to get someone over to our table (and there were only 2 other tables occupied in the restaurant) for refills, but then they got outright rude once it creeped closer to 10. Whenever our waitress would come by, I would make sure to make some smart ass remark like, "Yeah, I'm just gonna kick back here and take my time," or "Yeah, I'll finish my meal when I'm fucking good and ready...somebody must have a hot date here." We left shortly after 10...and the waitress got a nice fat zero tip.

I don't subscribe to "The customer is always right," but they ARE right in many cases. And if you need customers to keep you and the family business running, shut the fuck up and make me a taco, bitch!

Had we been complete assholes, that would have been another story. But we were merely customers coming in for a late dinner. I'm incredibly well-behaved when at a restaurant. I don't make an order hard...I like to keep it simple in most cases. So, what's the deal?

[elSicomoro]

Here's another twist on strange service.

When Rho and I lived in Maryland, we regularly frequented an IHOP in Takoma Park. The food was great, the servers nice as could be.

Just one problem...lack of English.

From my observations, it appeared that most of the servers were of Ethiopian or Eritrean descent. I would assume that they had not been in the US for too terribly long. And their English was just god-awful. They made a good effort, but their English was badly broken, and they did not understand some simple words. I always left a good tip though...they tried their hearts out, and I imagined that they were here in the US to seek a better life.

I'm sure their English will improve in the next few years with regular repeated use. But, if your language skills are not very good, you should try very hard to NOT work in a job that requires you to talk.

[Chewbaccus]

I agree that customers should be valued, but what if your purpose is that you want to see the store fall, due to a dangerously ignorant owner/boss?

~mike

Originally posted by Chewbaccus
I agree that customers should be valued, but what if your purpose is that you want to see the store fall, due to a dangerously ignorant owner/boss?

~mike

That's faulty logic.

If your purpose is to see the store fail, start nickel and diming them to death - steal little things here, spill things there... food costs will go up, profits will go down, it's all good.

Taking it out on the customer is wrong. What did they do but ask you to do your job? If you don't like it, quit. Don't chew up their food and spit it back out for them to eat.

It's not the customer's fault, so why punish him?

[juju]

It comes down to people. Treat people with respect.

This is why we were pissed with customers in the first place -- many times they don't treat us with respect. This pisses us off.

But if we're to expect them to treat us decently, we should treat them decently as well.

[elSicomoro]

Customer service seems to have tanked dramatically in the 90s.

I saw the decline taking shape probably 5 years ago. We were having a horrible time trying to hire Xmas help, and pretty much hired anyone with a pulse. And the workers didn't care...they could always find another job that paid more.

And that still seems to be the case. I would have hoped that the economic slump we went through would weed some of that shit out. But I had a horrible time trying to find help when I worked at CVS. I was fortunate enough to have a good core of workers, but to get any new help was like pulling teeth.

[SteveDallas]

Chewbaccus... re: the first name thing... when I was in high school in the Great Depression of the early 80s, my mom supplemented her massive schoolteacher salary by working part time in the women's dept. at Sears in the local mall. All the women who worked there, including her, had tags with Miss or Mrs. and their last name. At the time I thought it was cool, because I've never thought it was polite to walk up to somebody you've never met & say, "Hi, Sally, can you show me where the size 8 shoes are?" If they were doing it now I'd probably suggest that they all use fake names to avoid weirdos trying to track them down. Call me unpleasant and impolite, but I've always managed to avoid using a clerk's name. "Excuse me, can you point me to the gigabit ethernet switches" has always worked quite well without the need to pretend that the salesdroid and I are old school chums.

I've never worked retail... thank god.. tho I have my own horror stories from work in dealing with "customers" (i.e. students and employees). My favorite is still the woman who called up to complain that we did not provide laser printers in the dorms. She actually said, "I can't believe I'm paying all this tuition money for little Susie to go to college and you people can't put some laser printers in the dorms!" I had to restrain myself from telling her that if laser printing was the only thing about the experience of going to our college that Susie found important, then she needed to transfer. (For the record, we did have laser printers, but they were in labs where somebody could keep an eye on them.)

[elSicomoro]

I happened to think about my old job in DC last week and it brought back some funny memories.

As I mentioned previously, I worked for a direct marketing company that sold diploma frames and bed linens to college students when I lived in DC. It basically worked like this: We got your information from your school (we worked with about 600 colleges at the time), sent you the info, you called us and placed an order or sent the order by mail. I took orders over the phone for the first 9 months I worked there.

I try to be as articulate as possible over the phone, as did the other 2 reps. However, my buddy Sal spoke rather softly, and had a deep voice. People always fucked his name up when referring to him in a later call: Saul, Seth, Al, Hal, Thal (?). It got to the point where he would use one of these names in taking a call.

I was probably the most articulate of the 3 of us, and it never ceased to amaze me: Gary, Kerry, Perry, Tom (huh?), Barry, Jerry, Larry. How they got this from "Terry," I will never know.

[elSicomoro]

If you've ever had to deal with UPS on a regular basis, you probably already know that they fuck up royally sometimes. Most of the time, they're pretty good, but every now and then, something crazy happens. This has to be one of the funniest calls I have ever taken.

Caller: "I placed my order a week ago, and I still haven't received it yet." (The customer lived on Long Island, and deliveries from our old warehouse near Baltimore to the NYC area only took one day...two days tops.)

Syc: "Okay ma'am, let me track your package through UPS's website and we'll see what we can do."

*Syc tracks the package on the website. He notices the following message on the tracking screen that looked something like this:

"August 30, 1999 10:15am JFK INTL AIRPORT, NY TRUCK CAUGHT FIRE, CONTENTS DESTROYED, UNABLE TO DELIVER, WILL CONTACT SHIPPER"

Syc: *trying to come up with a stall* "Ma'am, the website is not very clear. I'd like to put you on hold for a moment and call UPS."

Caller: "Okay, that'll be fine."

*Syc calls UPS*

Syc: "Yes ma'am, I'm checking the status of a package." *gives rep tracking #*

Rep: "Okay...*puts it into system*...what the?!"

Syc: "Are you showing that there was some sort of fire?"

Rep: "Ummm....yeah, wait a minute...*puts Syc on hold*...sorry about that. Yeah, apparently there was a fire on that truck on Tuesday. They just sent the claim paperwork to you yesterday. I am REALLY sorry about this." *rep genuinely sounds sad*

Syc: *laughs* Well, I guess shit happens sometimes

Rep: *laughs* Yeah...

*Syc hangs up with UPS and goes back to the customer*

Syc: "Ma'am, I am incredibly sorry. I don't know how to tell you this...but it appears that the truck caught fire at JFK airport on Tuesday. Unfortunately, they hadn't informed us of this yet. I'll get a new package sent out to you this afternoon for next day delivery."

*Customer sounds angry at first, then surprised, then kinda laughs...is agreeable to what Syc offers*

Syc goes to the order processing clerk: "Look, we need to get this package out ASAP."

Clerk: "But it's only going to New York...that's only a one-day delivery anyway."

Syc: "Come over here." *Syc takes clerk over to his cubicle and shows her the tracking screen*

Clerk: "Oh...shit! Are you serious?!"

Syc: "Just got off the phone with them...it happened."

Clerk: "I'll call the warehouse and have them prioritize it."

Thankfully, the customer was understanding, and everything turned out okay. I mean, that sort of thing sounds almost unreal.