Quote: "Quote: "You should have the ability to say GTFO and show them to the door."
And then what? How do you force someone to leave without making a huge scene, causing more delays and endangering staff? And once you've forcibly removed them how do you keep them out?
In my experience it's not worth the time or effort to try and "do the right thing" with these type of people. We had a woman who was always running up fines and making all kinds of excuses, she even opened a new account to try and avoid the fines. In the end we let her off with half of the fines or something. The fact is she still spent a lot of money there and it wouldn't have done us any favours to refuse to serve her until she'd settled her debts. Is it fair on everyone else? Nope, but that's reality. I suppose in extreme cases you could ban a person from the shop, but I've never gone that far.
Another point is that they are ONE customer out of (hopefully) hundreds, spending time on their silly arguments is time you could be spending with other customers."
I think the problem is that in customer services is that we promote this idea that throwing tantrums gets what you want, the customer is always right after all. What we actually see, and I see it as a customer services agent, decency is not rewarded, being an arse is.
And I think it should be the opposite. If baby throws his toys out of the pram a person in customer services should be able to defend themselves and put that person in their place. I think good customer service should be reserved to pleasant people.
I know people will sit an argue, "but I gave you my hard earned cash", but the retort is "I gave you a service/product that was agreed upon transaction". Because you paid money, if you getting exactly what you paid for, then you are not entitled to anything else. Everything else is a courtesy or a gesture of good will.
What bugs me about gesture of good wills in customer services, it just translates to "what can I do to stop this person being angry?" These should only be given if you've not done right by the customer as a "I'm sorry" or because you're feeling nice.
Instead people in customer services have to smile and be pleasant and not lose their cool. I believe folks should be treated like human beings, customer service agents aren't punching bags or minions.
But...I guess in customers services there's ways of winning.
(Bad Language)
Don't get me wrong, I'll be as polite and pleasant as anything and I have the means of calming people down when they're angry and folks end up liking me and trusting me because I will do my best to get stuff done, but there are people you cannot win with and who are genuinely unreasonable. I believe in being patient with those who perhaps have a right to be annoyed, but...it can be pretty ridiculous at times.
Some of the stuff I get are *really* first world problems, yet I'm expected to be empathetic. Somebody's kids can't get cold water and we're monsters. There's a reason people hate having a customer services job and well, for as little as it pays, there should be *some* job satisfaction. This is why I'm pleasant when I have to contact customer services and I know how to deal with them if things aren't going my way. I see no point being that customer, does nobody any favours.
Also, with regards to safety, I work in a call center, we don't give out full names and only a PO Box for an address. I've been threatened with violence for *just* doing my job. Didn't work out for him because I had to cancel his repair, why would I send an engineer to his house if I perceive a risk of violence?
