The Counter Point

I have been meaning to do this post for ages now, either in video or written form but for one reason or another have not gotten round to it.  I have seen a couple of posts today in the same vein that I wanted to talk about so I cleared some time and got my typing fingers out.

 

What has been rolling around in my head?  Customers, customer service and how courtesy works both ways.

 

The original piece I saw was from  a few weeks back from the ever fabulous Sera talking about how the customer service industry has been in decline and how you just don't get the same level of polite service and helpfulness that used to be expected when going into a shop.  I wholly agree, some places you practically have to do a dance to attact attention and a "don't care attitude" is found in a lot of stores.

 

That said though, I wanted to add more to the subject.  Because I am a person at the other side of the counter.  I am not faced with customers in a shop, I have clients on the other end of the phone who require updates on claims and want their money, tomorrow.

 

I was always trained to be polite, courteous and try to find a solution to any problem that may arise.  I have always found that a conversation started with a smile usually tends to go well.  However, what I get back in return can sometimes veer from the rude to the downright horrible (see my previous post We Have a Soul Too)

 

When will people realise that shouting and rudeness doesn't work when you want to resolve an issue?

 

I recently had a huge problem when moving mobile networks.  You may have seen a few frustrated tweets about the subject as literally everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.  It took well over two hours on the phone and four visits to the store before the matter was rectified.

 

What I didn't do during any of that time was shout, be rude or be verbally abusive.   You can easily put your point across that you are unhappy with the situation with resorting to the above.  I raised my issues in calm manner, gained a rappour with every person I spoke to and was patient while they tried to figure out the issues.  Yes it took a long time, but the issues were technical glitches and none of the faults were due to the people who were trying to help me. 

 

As a result, my problems were resolved, I was more than adequately compensated and I would highly recommend their customer service support.  They bent over backwards to make sure that I was happy and more than one thanked me for being so understanding.

 

It's Christmas now and everyone is slightly on edge, running around buying last minute Christmas presents and wondering whether you are going to get everything done.

 

"Christmas isn't Christmas without presents" said Jo.

 

I just ask that you take a breath before you are served at a till, speak to customer representative or make a complaint because the chances are, you will get a far higher level of service if you do and it won't leave both parties wanting to bang their heads against a brick wall.

 

 

Friday Rant

There has been something swirling round in my head for a while now, so where better to let it out than here?  So here we go:

Phobias.  There are thousands of phobias in the world.  Some of them are commonly known such as claustrophobia or arachnophobia; others not so, like Bambakomallophobia (fear of cotton wool) or climacophobia (fear of stairs).

I have previously talked about my phobias when it comes to stairs on this blog.  For those that haven’t read: I get dizzy when coming down stairs and have to hold on to the handrail.  If there is no hand rail my head starts to spin and I have practically morph myself into the wall to get me down the stairs.  Going up, my foot has to be touching the step in front and again, have to hold the handrail for dear life.  In short, stairs terrify me, even as little as three steps.

Whilst this phobia isn’t debilitating it is something that I face every day as obviously it is impossible to completely avoid staircases.  My workplace has the biggest staircase ever, go figure.

That isn’t the issue that has been irritating me though.  Here is where I am having my little strop.

I am SICK of people laughing at me when they see me on the stairs.  I can understand somebody the first time of seeing me asking me why I am going so slowly (although I fail to understand why you would ask someone who is clearly having issues with the staircase questions whilst they are still on staircase).  I don’t mind explaining the first time because it does look odd.  But after that, there is no excuse.

It is RUDE to laugh at me, it is WHOLLY impolite to say “Oh aren’t you funny” and it is FUCKING HORRIBLE to run down the stairs at me on purpose when you know damn well that I am scared.

You wouldn’t do anything of those things to someone with a better known phobia.  You wouldn’t trap a claustrophobic person into a wardrobe and you wouldn’t throw a spider at an arachnophobic person so don’t behave that way towards me.  It isn’t something I chose to be affected by and I can’t just “get over it” and I can’t “just try walking down the stairs normally” (really??? Never thought of that, you fuckwit).

And……. Breath.

I feel much better after saying that.  Sometimes you just have to get a little rant on and everything feels better again.  Apologies for the swearing and not “using my words” but sometimes, nothing but the word fuck will do.