You Never Know Who You’re Serving when customers turn irate.
I think of myself as a reasonable person. It takes a lot to
upset me, but upset I am.
A number of years ago, I bought a new television set. I had
seen a flyer from Lechmere’s that had TV’s on sale. I called,
got through the voice mail menu and asked the
salesperson who answered, if the particular model
advertised was available.
No, it wasn’t but another, equally as good was at only $20
more.
I went to the store and examined a number of TV’s. A
knowledgeable, helpful salesman approached and patiently
answered my questions. Finally, I made my choice and paid
for it. I asked if they would hold it for me while I did some
further shopping and was told that of course they would.
I was pleased with myself, with the store and with the
purchase I’d made.
When I picked up the TV, it was so big, the young man who
brought it out to the car had to take it out of the box to get it
into my car.
My son brought it into the house for me and started to set it
up when he asked, “Where’s the antenna?”
My first thought was, “Oh no, it was left in the box.”
I called the store to check. A young woman answered and
said she’d put me through to the appropriate department.
The on-hold music blared uncomfortably. I held the phone
away from my ear when suddenly I heard the dial tone! I’d
been disconnected. I re-dialed, went through the voice mail
menu again, got the same young woman who said she’d
put me through to “George”. The loud music again irritated
my ears as I waited and waited and waited for “George” to
answer the phone. As the minutes ticked by, my irritation
grew at a rapidly escalating rate. When he didn’t answer the
phone, I hung up and re-dialed. Again, I got the voice mail
menu (which I now had memorized), punched in the correct
extension, got the ringing of the phone, interrupted with
short bursts of loud music, followed by more ringing which
alternated with the loud music in my ear over 12 times.
I was now an irate customer. In less than 5 minutes I had
been transformed from a very happy customer, into one of
those crazy customers you dread speaking to. When the
phone was finally answered, I let loose on the poor,
unsuspecting salesperson. I told him that I had been
disconnect, put on hold, ignored, gone practically deaf, and I
was now VERY angry. He placidly replied, “That’s because
we’re busy, Ma’am. We have a lot of customers here today.”
“I don’t care!” I loudly proclaimed - my son, who had walked
into the room at that moment, looked at me as though I had
turned into a stranger in front of his eyes. He is
unaccustomed to seeing me lose my temper.
“I am your customer and I am not getting good service.” I
then explained irately about my missing antenna. He asked
me what size TV and I told him 27″, he said that no 27″ TV
comes with an antenna.
Of course this put me over the top. I went from being an irate
customer to the customer from hell. Why hadn’t I been told?
Furious, I made another trip to the store and asked for the
manager who cynically informed me that he was surprised
to hear a complaint about the TV department. The
defensiveness of the manager was the last thing I wanted to
hear while I was still in a state of anger.
He didn’t do anything to assuage my temper. He told me
that everyone today had cable TV, therefore there’s no need
to include antennas. I told him that I for one don’t have
cable. I explained it might be a good idea to ask customers
if they had cable.
He then asked a salesperson to find me an antenna. It
looked like two wires attached by a plastic tripod. I asked
how effective this would be and was told that it wouldn’t be
very effective but a “sound amplified” antenna would be what
I needed.
Bottom line, I ended up paying for a $62.00 antenna.
No discount, no heartfelt apology, no attempt to make me
feel that I was an important customer. But, just like most
customers that get less than deserved service I got my
revenge. Irate customers tell on average, 10-20 other
people about the bad service they receive. I have already
told many audiences and now am sharing this in my
newsletter.
I started out as a reasonable customer, I would have
cheerfully bought the antenna, but because of the chain of
events, it brought out my evil twin. Not my most flattering nor
most comfortable mode of behavior.
Contrast this incident to an experience I had, that Marty at
the Hyatt Hotel in Austin, TX handled.
During a stay in that hotel, I was woken up through out my
first night’s stay by an intermittent whooshing noise I
couldn’t identify. When I got up the next morning and walked
into the bathroom the toilet greet me with the same noise
that had annoyed me all night.
I called the front desk who sent an engineer to the room. In
explaining the situation and how it had woken me during the
night, Marty, the engineer, gave me a pass to the restaurant
and told me that breakfast was on him. He said, “No one
should be woken during the night by a noise.”
I have to say that his response was surprising to me. At
most hotels I stay at the engineer would have to get
permission to give away a meal.
His service attitude made my stay at the Hyatt memorable.
P.S. I told everyone else in attendance at the meeting and
now over 1,500 more through my newsletter and since I’m
posting this on the web, how many more will read it?
Remember: You never know who you’re serving.
Margo Chevers, author of the books STOP the BS (bad
service), What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
and How to Get Up on a Down Day has been providing
sales and customer service seminars and consulting to a
diverse cross-section of industries for the past 15 years. To
receive her free 10 top tips for exceptional customer service,
call (800) 858-0797 or email margo@margochevers.com.
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