(no subject)

[yagathai]

People have this strange idea that customer service is something that anyone can do. I guess in a sense anyone can do it, in the same way that anyone can dig a ditch. But of course not everyone can dig a ditch, let alone dig a ditch, and not everyone can do a customer service job -- let alone do it well. It's a skill, and a talent, and rarer than many people think.

Nevertheless, just like most anyone can grasp the basics of ditch-digging (hold this end of shovel, insert other end of shovel into earth, move shovelful of earth, repeat), just about everyone should be able to grasp the first principle of customer service:

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE.

Now believe me I understand how much fun being an asshole can be. Being an asshole is one of my primary forms of recreation, in fact. And sometimes people make it very hard for you not to be an asshole to them. Nevertheless, if you're in a customer service position, if people are giving you money in exchange for your goods or services, the rule remains. No matter how hard it is, you must always remember:

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE.

I just don't get why some people can't figure that one out. Because as I see it, there are exactly three acceptable answers to Nick's question:

1) "I'm very sorry. I wish I could help, but our policies prevent me from doing that, and here's why" ... followed by a reasonable explanation for why his very simple request could not be accommodated.

2) "Let me check on that for you and get back to you when I've found an answer", followed by a subsequent communication featuring either answer 1 or answer 3.

3) "Sure thing, Nick. Here you go." Because, as Nick points out, it's the work of maybe a couple of minutes to fulfil his request, and that's if you're out of coffee.

You see this kind of thing a lot everywhere, but for some reasons it seems especially concentrated when it comes to the people that run fan conventions. Not all the people of course, and not all the conventions, but often enough that it's a noticeable trend -- and frankly, there's no excuse. Even if the people running a convention don't possess the necessary "don't be an asshole" skillset, and even if their services are indispensable because only their brobdingnagian brains can perform such feats of combinatorics that even our primitive electric calculating machines cannot compare, those people should not be anywhere near the paying customers. All they need to do is find someone that has that valuable non-asshole skillset and put that person between them and the public.

Everyone in our community would get along so much better if they did that.

Comments

[babyraven.livejournal.com]

I hardly need to give YOU, of all people, my spiel on proper customer care.

Therefore I'll just obnoxiously point out your malformed sentence: "Being an asshole of my primary forms of recreation, in fact."

And then perhaps I'll stab you with a pen some more, even though THIS time you're not asking for it, because it was kind of fun, to be honest.

[saltedpin.livejournal.com]

Yes, this exactly. You're doing a job in exchange for money. It's a pretty simple equation, actually.

I also hate people who undervalue customer service as a skill. It's actually fairly diffult to get it right.

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE.

[regina-of-york.livejournal.com]

I suggest we get this on t-shirts before next year's Worldcon. ;-)

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Shopsin's restaurant begs to differ.

[petitbout.livejournal.com]

I am a stickler for good customer service. And I will sometime write the heads of companies (recently Steve Jobs) if I think it's lacking.

But that's the difference. Your friend NM did two potentially useless things - or asshat things. Tomayto Tomahto.

1) sent an e-mail back to the exact same person

2) took his complaint to the public

For 1) he should have take a moment of his day and called to speak to that e-mail person, and likely their supervisor.

See the above. I think it may become more usual, now that Comcast's strategy of having an Internet Guy (one who trolls the internet looking for people complaining about Comcast and OFFERING customer service to correct the problem) but for now taking it to the internet is really just a sotherestickoutyourtongue sort of move.