Even I - Ms Customer Service Extraordinaire - slipped up...
December 9th 2011 02:05
Link: www.theprofitfrog.com
I may be all about customer service, but I have a breaking point.
The other day, it was BUSY in store. We had one staff member away, and I had to cover all bases. I barely stepped away from the register - not because I was the check out operator, but because I'd help one customer then find myself surrounded with 2-3 others who needed help, too.
I was prioritising each customer in such a way that those with easy to answer questions were provided with them and those who needed plant selection assistance got more of my time. I had one lady approach me while I was about to assist another who had patiently awaited my attention.
I turned to the patient woman and began my conversation, only to witness the other lady express herself rather exasperatedly, sighing and rolling her eyes.
I directly apologised to my immediate customer and said to the impatient one that I would be with her in a moment.
To the surprise of myself and to the other customers standing around waiting patiently, this lady spouted off rudely that she had already been waiting for 15 minutes and wanted to be served.
So, rather pointedly, I turned to the lovely customer who had waited her time to speak with me and asked if I could attend to this other lady. She clearly understood from the tone of my voice that I was not impressed with the other woman's attitude and just wanted to get her out of the way.
Not nice?
Well, it gets better.
This woman gets my full attention, and I ask her what product she is after.
She said she couldn't tell me and that she had to show me and rudely pointed in the direction she expected me to follow in.
Then - get this - along the way, walking to the far back wall of the garden centre (a good 30 second hike) she suddenly engages in idle chit chat... asking about the store, stopping to gaze at other plants along the way. So, I rudely asked her to tell me what product she was after, and kept walking toward the back of the store. She soon followed and then suddenly she interrupts four customers who are standing at the bird netting and weed mat bay, telling me she wanted bird netting.
In less than 15 seconds I determined that she didn't want it because she had mistaken the weed mat pricing for the bird netting price (bird net is double the cost).
She said she didn't want it and walked off.
OMG!
So, I took a few moments to apologise to the customers she had just interrupted to check if they needed help with the bird net or the weed mat (they didn't, thank you)... and I then returned to the lovely lady waiting patiently for my assistance.
Only to find that when I got there, the telephone rang. I had to apologise again to this poor lady and answer the phone, only to find it was a customer on a mobile with poor reception and I couldn't be sure I heard her correctly.
In a bid to check that I'd understood her message and while apologising to her for not hearing it clearly due to poor reception, she rudely yelled at me down the phone in such an exasperated voice I pretty much wanted to tell her where she could shove her phone!
I know - totally unprofessional thinking. I did not act in any way on that thought!!!
Instead I returned to my ever-patient customer and said out loud, "It seems like everyone is on rude-pills today, oh my goodness!" As I smiled at her in my approach, I said, "Now, let's have a good day, and not a rude one, shall we?" and she smiled at my directness and cheekiness and off we went in the direction of the aisle to get her the plants she needed.
The lesson here is that I was dealing with two customers who, based on their own personal attitudes, each got very different service from me.
I was not so rude to the other lady that I did not help her. I was just simply product oriented and answered her questions strictly related to the product.
I did not engage in small talk or friendly banter because she had just been so rude it was beyond my comprehension that she would act that way.
The other lady had my full attention, conversation and lots of answers because she received what she gave - friendliness, patience and selflessness.
I am not proud of how stroppy I got with the rude customer, but I have to say, it felt nice to put her in her place in a very professional way that other customers seemed very pleased to witness.
I guess overall, there is a way to deal with even the most rude of customers.
I have had a few recently due to incorrect catalogue image used to represent a product. The very expensive version of a plant was photographed and then the text for the cheaper and smaller plant and pricing were presented next to it. Wise customers KNEW that the image was wrong and one even demanded that we give the expensive product to her for the price of the cheap one!
Ah, no...
Instead I was able to talk her around with several apologies and got her phone number to call her when the cheaper plant arrived in store.
It is not always going to be easy to deal with customers. As I have said in previous posts, they are people - humans like you and me. They have mortgages, sick family members, sudden bills, council issues, legal problems, schooling challenges for their kids - any number of challenges that plague their minds even when out shopping.
You don't have to be the "Dear Dotty" columnist style of person who takes on board all their concerns and tries to make their problems go away. BUT you can help distract them for a moment, engage with them and connect with them so that they feel good about who they are - even for a short time.
They will remember YOU - and if you wow them with exceptional customer service, you will have begun building LOYAL customers for life.
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