I have seen people like this article describes. I even know a few. I say to these people, "You get what you pay for" and "If you keep having problems, take your business elsewhere." But, I think some of these people secretly look for a reason to go all "mightier than thou" on someone; on anyone. It's not them that needs to change, it's the universe that needs to change. I can not imagine living inside that person's head, always parked in the victim zone waiting for an opportunity to loudly tell the universe around them how important they are. Very sad.
Maybe You Get Bad Customer Service Because You're a Bad Customer – http://huff.to/1d8Mq5D
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Maybe You Get Bad Customer Service Because You’re a Bad Customer
Some folks seem to get into a customer service Battle Royale every time they step outside their house. Maybe it’s because the universe is against you guys. Or maybe — just maybe — it’s because you behave like selfish obnoxious bullies.
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Great post +Scott Cramer – sadly, there are a lot of people "always parked in the victim zone."
There are such things as bad customers, absolutely.
At the OPE dealer I worked at for two years, we had this one tree service guy that was always a piece of shit to deal with. EVERY time he bought a chainsaw, he'd take the one we recommended, then go one less to "save money". Stihl's warranty on chainsaws is a year for homeowners, and 90 days for commercial applications. Dude would consistently come in around day 110 with a completely roached chainsaw. Just like, completely destroyed. In addition to internal destruction, they'd often been dropped out of trees, which was also "our fault".
Here's what was happening. He'd dial back one on the recommended model, dropping horse power for money. He'd then put the same sized bar as the big model on, and run it full length all day. So you've got an engine that is barely specced to run a chain that long, working that all day, with no maintenance. When you bog the engine, it runs richer, depositing carbon in the spark arrestor. This increased back pressure (bad), and eventually the carbon build up works its way back to the engine internals itself. Then there's a whole bunch of grit and crap banging around in the cylinder, scratching everything to hell.
Our fault, every time. Fuck that guy.
Classic transaction models of communication always hold true, well said Scott. You find people like this in every culture and place, sadly so.
I know businesses that have "fired" customers, in that they requested that they take their business elsewhere. It's because they were "bad" customers.
Everyone should wait tables for a week. I'm glad I did when I was in college. It gave me tremendous appreciation for that work, industry and how self absorbed people can be.
This is why I've always loved Disney's motto, "We allow customers to be wrong, with dignity" rather than the old "The customer is always right" crap. There is a limit to the amount of abuse an employee should have to deal with.
+Luis Roca I never waited tables (a country club wouldn't hire me because I was too scrawny) but I worked stock and customer service in several discount stores; think Walmart / K-Mart and then step down a notch. That experience was as valuable as anything I learned in college.
+Eric Hansen That story is perfect. Thanks for taking the time to type it out! Different thing, but we used to have people return shoes to the discount store with the tread worn completely smooth!? Sigh.
+Kyla Myers When daughter and I were there this year I talked to quite a few of the employees and even got a few to break ranks and comment on bad customers. Without fail, though, they all loved the job and felt good about the support they got from the company. You are so right.
+Kathryn Huxtable My bro/partner +Keith Cramer and I have decided not to work for a couple customers; sometimes "customer is always right" is just not good business.
+Dirk Reul Universal. So agree with you!
+Kurt Smith Thank you, Sir! 🙂
I worked Customer Service for a couple phone companies. Honestly most people are great to work with. However there are some people who are nasty & abusive. It's good to remember that this is a small fraction of people, in general.
The really frustrating part is that most companies don't give their employees the authority to handle customers like this even though they have full responsibility for how the interaction goes.
+Jake Kern The small mean percentage is always so loud. :-/ Agreed on frustration that the front lines in the trenches don't have the ability to do anything which infuriates the already out of control customer.