Whatever happened to service with a smile?
Linda from over on Crone and Bear it got me thinking about this tonight. It seems to me that the term service with a smile has gone away. Today rude, snide, snot nosed brats (even 70 year olds can be brats) are the norm wherever you go. When I worked where I had to answer a phone our instructions were to answer with a smile. When one answers a phone with a smile pasted on his/her face, it does make one feel and sound more pleasant to the caller.
“The customer is always right.” You’ve all heard this one. That too has fallen by the wayside. It’s a darned shame that so many people, so often have to ask for the manager because whomever they are dealing with has forgotten this rule.
Something a dear friend of great age taught me long ago was that you’ll get a lot farther in this world with a smile and a kind word than you ever will by being nasty. Of course, that old gal could tell you to go to hell in such a way that you’d actually look forward to the trip—it’s called diplomacy.
Posted on September 13, 2009, in Misc and tagged Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Doggonedmysteries 
Ah, you’re obviously shopping in the wrong places 😉
Personally, as someone who works in retail, I hate the rule that that states that “the customer is always right”. Why? Because, all too often, the customer is anything but…
I did far too many years in retail. There are a few who are right. Return business is what keeps retailers solvent. To keep customers coming back to the store if you treat them all as if they were right or at least with some form of respect, they will remember and return.
Have you ever seen a retail clerk treat someone who is not dressed to the nines badly? I have seen it, and I later told the clerk about the person she ran off with her attitude. The man was known to spend a fortune whenever he came into a store, he had millions. (Although he dressed like the world’s worst slob, think Larry the cable guy.) I’m glad he recognized me as someone who’d helped him before. He came over to ask me for help instead of completely fleeing the store–we worked on commission and I got a nice one that day.
Clerks today recieve only minimal training before they are thrown into the trenches because the company doesn’t want to spend the time or the money to train them properly. Gotta keep that profit margin up for the stock holders.
Most clerks (even well-trained ones) are unfortunately stressed to the max because most stores are understaffed. Profit margin again.
They are also saddled with all sorts of idiotic crap dreamed up by some wet-behind-the ears twit with an MBA but not one second’s experience actually working in a store. They are told exactly what to say to customers, and God help the clerk who doesn’t parrot the ordered words in exactly the right sequence to a secret shopper hired by the company to look for such ‘violations.’
Companies also tell their employees that customer service is paramount then demand the employees interrupt taking care of a customer to file a report on meeting the company’s customer service goals.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So don’t lay all the blame on clerks. Put an equal amount on the companies themselves.
I agree that the companies are also responsible for the problem. (Especially the retail company you worked for.)
However, I also know that YOU treated your customers with respect and always had return ones while you worked there. And, I remember hearing something about them leaving the store in droves when you left there.
😉
Don’t totally agree with you Dave – I’d say 100% of the blame is in the management at all levels above whoever is being rude and not being (re)trained or fired. Especially after multiple complaints.
Hi sweetie, Thanks for the shout-out. I’m having such a time with rude clerks these days – my dad always told me you catch more flies with honey – I try and keep that in mind – try and be polite and realize that maybe that clerk has had a day from Hades – but sometimes I just want to smack the rude ones and most of the time I simply am in too much of a hurry to actually go to the manager and do something about it. Mostly I send emails with the once in awhile face-to-face chat. If we don’t tell them about the problems, the problems will simply remain, right? Then again, many managers also don’t care; they’re just happy they are staffed with people willing to work for little to no money and few benefits. I honestly agree w/Elena that managers don’t do enough these days to train their employees and then reinforce that training. Hugs, Linda