Customer Service -- Argh!!

[Venator]

Does anyone here who is currently employed work in customer service and find it extremely difficult to work with problem customers and stay their temper/snarkitude?

I just had a guy call me wanting to sell me some golf balls, didn't like the price I'd pay for used golf balls, reamed me for it not being worth his time etc and I ended up throwing the phone :|

 

[Lucycat]

Sorry Venator, but your post made me smile!

I don't exactly work in customer service as such - I'm a nurse. Sometimes I would love to be able to react as you did. Yes, I have problem 'clients' and their families and I want to scream at them. Throwing a phone AT THEM would feel good!

Unfortunately all I can do is have a wee rant to myself.

 

[Venator]

Throwing a phone AT THEM would feel good!

It would, wouldn't it? -laugh-

I might flip when nobody's here but I usually internalize my anger ok when someone's in front of me to avoid a bad confrontation that'd speak poorly of my father's business. I've had customers throw things AT ME before and knock over merchandise in a rage. I'd hate to do that to them too :o

 

[The Albatross]

I used to work for a county tax collector's office. Now there's some fun (not)... NOBODY wants to pay taxes. Especially on luxury items when they think they've saved some by purchasing them in Georgia or Alabama.

 

[TLight]

Customer service is extremely triggering for me. Finally learned, can't do it, ever again. Period.
People treat service people like crap. Not all, but a ton of them do.
Somehow they think that if they are paying for something, that means they can abuse the person in front of them.

Generally, all the years I spent doing it made me loathe people. I'm sad for this and very lonely. But I'd rather be alone than be around complainers and abusers.

 

[sea]

This is what I don't understand about society. Customer service is a service, for another person. It isn't a right or a privilege, it is a service. Meaning that despite that they pay you, you still decide to help the person complete whatever goal they want. This is as simple as buying something a store or ordering food in a restaurant. I cannot understand why people feel the need to be rude to those who spend their lives to what amounts to serving people, helping people out, etc.

Just because you aren't a doctor or a lawyer does not mean what you do is not important and that people should not treat you with respect. I don't see any of these people getting up and doing it themselves. I guess I am different because I really respect a lot of people who do service work as it is thankless. I have had people in stores or whatever be unnecessarily harsh or angry toward me but considering all they do is deal with idiots on a daily basis I cannot really say I blame them. They probably had a shitty day. Unless someone is very disrespectful to me or my family personally I just do not see the need to make the interaction even more unpleasant by opening my mouth at all.

The whole idea just irks the hell out of me. People irritate the f*ck out of me. I could never work in customer service. I could never do other things for people on a daily basis and be treated like shit just because. They had a bad day, they don't like what I'm doing, they don't like the product, it's my fault they don't like it, it's Tuesday, whatever. I used to deal with people on a daily basis and when they would get uppity with me I would smile politely and say, "Just thank me for not purposefully killing you." They would look at me like I had 2 heads and hurry up on out.

 

[Venator]

I think the only reason I can even tolerate it now is because I'm working for my father - he is a boss who will always back me up, unlike some of the people I worked with at Circuit City (RIP) or Staples.

One lady I worked for at Staples berated me in front of a customer and told me I was undermining her authority when all I was trying to do was follow due process on warehouse orders. Another at Circuit City threw a security merchandise box at my head because I was too busy selling computers and services to put all the tags out yet. This was before my diagnosis, I no call-no showed because I was too afraid to set foot in there again.

I've got horror stories like you wouldn't believe, especially because I used to fix computers. People's sense of entitlement can be STAGGERING, it's unbelievable. State Troopers claiming they'd make my life on New Jersey's highways hell for not being able to save their already dying hard drive, people slamming fists on the counter putting me into fight mode, hanging their income above me, telling me how absolutely worthless I am and how I'm going nowhere.

I mean, I was treated the worst when I was a mascot at Chuck E. Cheese's though... oh my god. haha

 

[hazen]

I manage a coffee shop so I am very familiar with problem customers Venator. I know exactly what it feels like to get cussed out for things that are totally out of your control.

It can be extremely difficult even without PTSD. There are days I wish I could wear a t-shirt with a middle finger on it and not talk to anyone... so instead I have to bottle alot of emotions up. I have gotten better over the years at just letting things go, but it is still a struggle. Especially since as a child I was always the problem-solver of the family and would put myself in the middle of fights, so I often still feel like I have to solve everyone's emotional problems.

It takes so much practice to react to someone screaming with a smile, but I can do it now. Then you go to the back room and punch the ice machine. :)

Don't let them get to you! You are a good and worthwhile person!

 

[Kim]

I've worked a lot of retail and the best way I've found to get even with people like that is to give them my biggest, best smile and tell them in the sweetest voice I can muster to "have a nice day anyway" as they're walking out the door. Boy does that piss them off!! Not only that but what can they say? If they say anything nasty they'll look like the idiot they really are!!! :D

 

[kanin]

I've done the service industry for a decade now, some tech stuff too (though I had cell phones, just be thankful not all the computers are small enough to throw at you) and I have to say I think this might be the worst possible field to be in for someone with PTSD. It's constant pressure, constant demand, constant shaming when you inevitably can't pull the golden product out your ass, it's like a giant shame gauntlet for me.

I don't know about anyone else, but there's a reason I take smoke breaks (and then get comments about taking smoke breaks, which ruins my smoke break) you need the calm down time.

I know it sounds like the exact opposite of what you want to do, but the whole 'customer is always right' thing and the 'kill 'em with kindness' thing actually can work if you're in a real bad spot.

 

[Hashi]

I think customer service workers are in a really difficult position because often the company they represent, they way it runs things, the way it keeps records (or doesn't) ane the way it deals with things can be very bad. The customer service people didn't cause all that, but they have to deal with the people who are unhappy about it.

Kind of a different angle but I have a boss who who is the nastiest person I've ever met who you probably couldn't actually convict of anything. He's vile generally, but he's particularly vile to customer service people. We hear this, because he spends a lot of the working day on personal phone calls. For some reason he feels justified, and even gratified, by yelling at customer service people.

There's a British film called "in the Loop" (about politics) which has a character who at one point says essetially, "Get me someone on the phone... anyone... i want to shout at someone". This is how I see my boss. He takes out all his frustration at his job and life generally on someone at the end of the phone. His vile self actually comes away from an abusive, shouty phone call feeling a little bit better (because he was able to put someone else down.)

He's a really loathsome being, for many reasons, and all this does is make me feel for the person he's just been on the phone with. The biggest irony is that he himself causes all sorts of issues that people hate, and we're the ones who take the calls about it... but since we're such a tiny organisation I have great pleasure in putting the callers through to him.

 

[circe47]

This topic is very triggering for me in a few different ways. First of all, my last job was found through a temp agency. I was offered full time employment by the company. While negotiating the salary and terms of the position, the office manager said that eventually it would evolve into a customer service role. At that time I explained that I had JUST LEFT the hospitality industry and did not want to enter into a service oriented role again. I explained servicing people was not a career choice for my future. I was done trying to sell, done kissing the a**es of ungrateful people with entitlement issues, would not be able to guarantee being pleasant to customers, I was burned out, etc. He told me that it was good to know, and implied that they still wanted me anyway. I took the job as a receptionist, with an unbelievably outstanding salary that supported me and my son in a big, expensive city and I LOVED MY JOB.

The company hired another person who took on the customer service role, in addition to her media team role. Everything was fine, until her first real vacation, after she'd been with the company a year. The company had me take over her customer service calls, but when she came back, she did not resume them. I explained to the IT guy that my co-worker was back, and that the calls should get returned back to her. They did not. I ended up having to take the calls and swallow my anger at being forced into a job description that I stated I did not want at the beginning. All because it was at the height of the economic collapse and NEEDED my job.

Long story short, here I was a person with C-PTSD having to deal with a bunch of ungrateful, snobby, sh*tty a** customers who did nothing but complain, b*tch and moan about cheap, cr#ppy household products that cost 2 cents to make and $14.99 to buy. Not a very positive environment to spend almost a third of my life in.

I then started to hate going to work, and it got worse from there. I ended up taking medical leave for four days due to extreme stress. When I called to say I would return the next day, I had been let go. My work, apparently, had gotten behind, and it had taken a co-worker a day to catch up.

My superiors ignored the fact that I was taking literally hundreds of customer calls a day...answering just as many emails...in addition to completing in a timely manner the various side projects that came my way.

This really peels my cap because my employer had the choice to tell me up front during negotiations that the customer service role was non negotiable, and he did not. If he had, I would have had the choice to either take the job, or find one better suited to my needs.

Bottom line, Venator, I feel for you. I have been right where you are and know all about how bad it can been. I remember slamming the phone down many times, wondering how long it was going to be before my office manager remembered my prophetic words that it would be a bad move for me to be a customer service rep.