Customer Service That Makes You Want to Scream
By United Yacht | October 2, 2008
Author: Sondra Whitt
Coming home from the office supply store, I let out a big sigh and slammed the door a little harder than intended. My husband asked me what was wrong, to which I replied, “Nothing, just me.” He laughed and asked what had happened to upset me so much. I proceeded to tell him about my trip to the office supply store.
First, no one expressed any desire to offer me any help. But I knew what I wanted and where to find it so I picked it up and headed to the counter to check out. As I waited patiently in line behind an elderly couple, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation with the clerk. They were obviously upset about something. The woman, trying to calm her husband said, “She’s just doing what she’s been told.” This didn’t help matters. “I can get a manager if you’d like,” the clerk told him. To which the gentleman exasperatingly replied, “I don’t care what you do!” At that point I thought, “This may take awhile.” So, I looked around for another counter to go to.
I couldn’t spot a clerk at any of the other counters, but the little light was on above counter number two and I spied a young clerk ambling in the same direction so I asked her if she was manning that counter. “Yeah,” she replied, with no visible sign of enthusiasm. I gave her a coupon along with a used ink cartridge to recycle for which I would receive a $2.50 discount on the new cartridge I just purchased. The young clerk started mumbling to herself and I asked her if she was talking to me. She replied that she was not. She totaled my purchases and then started mumbling again, leaving my coupon lying on the counter. I asked her if there was a problem with the coupon. She told me I could only use it once and asked me if I wanted to use it. Of course I wanted to use it! Why else would I have given it to her? Clutching both the coupon and the ink cartridge, she started mumbling again. I again asked if there was a problem. She told me the store had this “stupid rule” that I could only use one discount at a time. “So I can’t use the cartridge?” I asked. “No,” she replied, as she handed the cartridge back to me. She then stood there staring at the cash register, with a confused look on her face and said, “Oh.” This gave me hope, but it proved to be unfounded as she proceeded to total my purchases and started mumbling yet again to no one in particular. The guy behind me thought it was perhaps him and politely responded, “Pardon me?” But the clerk seemed incapable of communicating with anyone but herself. By the time I got out of the store I was ready to scream.
Interestingly enough I went into the same store one day to find smiling employees falling all over themselves to serve me the minute I walked through the door. I couldn’t travel five steps without being accosted by a clerk who would ask, “May I help you?” At first it was comical and then it became irritating. When I checked out, I asked the clerk what was going on. He asked what I meant and I explained what I had experienced. He laughingly informed me that the district manager was in the store. Well, when the cat’s away, the mice will play. But in this case when he was around the result wasn’t much better - it was just bizarre.
The exaggerated, over-the-top service I received when the district manager was in the store was just as irritating as the incompetent, disinterested clerk. Good customer service isn’t just asking people if they need help. Neither is it well-sounding but empty words delivered with a phony smile, accompanied by a zombie-like stare. What is good customer service? It’s caring enough to really help them by doing what this old sales adage says, “Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.” Keep that in mind and you’ll be well on the way to good customer service.
Topics: About United Yacht, Customer Service, United Yacht, United Yacht Sales |
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