Customers

[Nique]

Here are some musings about customer service:

Customers! Have you thought about maybe being nicer to the people you are calling? They generally have access to a lot of your personal information. Basically all of it. Most people with steady jobs have scruples, or are highly motivated to keep themselves employed, so it's not something to be that worried about! But let's just say you call in and yell at someone who is somewhat unscrupulous... Such a person might actually stand to gain by exacting revenge on, say, your bank account, or credit score.

I am honor-bound to never reveal or take advantage of another human being like this, and boy oh boy does my company enforce customer privacy! But I am scared to abuse customer service reps because of this, and you should be too. The upside to common-courtesy is that it tends to make the people you deal with feel better about helping you, which may in turn makes them want to help you more!

Also if you are calling in for help and you refuse all the available options, your customer service person can't help you! You can keep yelling at them if you like. Or even call them mean names! But that doesn't change the fact 1) they are limited to the options available to them determined by someone so far above them that you are literally wasting your breath by complaining about those options and 2)there are literally no other possible solutions to technical problems than troubleshooting or to have a visit from a repairman. There is not a magic button/wand/secret code etc.

Also, if you disagree with your bill, maybe you should examine it a little more closely before calling in to dispute it. It's not that you won't get help, but you might be wasting your time and their's if oh, maybe you DID order that movie 13 times, or ,yes, your state does charge sales tax and there is not a company on earth that won't include that in your bill. Sorry!

Let's talk more about how you treat these folks. You may not be aware of this, but even though it's great for a customer service rep to have the attitude that the customer is always right, the minute you adopt that attitude in an effort to have them concede to demands that they are simply incapable of granting you, it turns into a meaningless platitude. You can tell them that you pay their mortgage, but in reality they probably don't have one due to their ridiculous wage, and when they ask for a raise, they most likely won't call you. You are not always right! And even if you are, you are probably barking up the wrong tree. Instead of working yourself into a stroke or heart attack by yelling at people who won't have any idea how to make you happy, try talking to a supervisor to submit an idea/ complaint!

If you have a fundamental issue with the way they conduct business, making another human being hate his life is probably a bad way to get your complaint resolved! Try writing a letter to a government organization. No! Not the FBI. Although if you do decide to threaten such a recourse, it will provide some much needed amusement. Rather, try someone like the FCC, or the FDA, or the Better Business Bureau! These organizations are in place to govern business practices, and may also be able to grant you a little bit of perspective! Like the fact that your TV provider does not control the outcome of your favorite sporting events.

TL;DR - I had a bad day at work today. I was EXTRA nice to people, asked instead of told, went the extra mile for unreasonable people and I was still regarded as, and explicitly told that I was, a piece of ... you know? Just put in any colorful expletive you feel like.