Dear Journal...

Bad Customer Service

Talk about annoying. My blood was boiling today at the meeting. The customer service manager came in today to discuss good customer service with my co-workers and I. The only reason she came in in the first place was because I had emailed her for a completely off-topic reason. I’ve been working at this store since November and should have met her months ago! After today’s training, I really regret trying to contact her in the first place. I had pictured a completely different person. Someone more like me, who cares and enjoys communicating with the customers. Her job and my job are entirely different, though. She sits behind a computer answering telephones. I’m out on the floor trying to educate people on how to better take are of their pets. That’s what I enjoy most about working at a pet supply store.

At first I didn’t think she was too bad. But the more she spoke, the more I started to dislike her. For this being my first job, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what customer service should be like. To me it’s mostly logical, but I’ve learned a lot from my parents that has really helped me become a better people person. The way she spoke to us was as if we had no common sense, or no sense of how to respond to situations. I may not agree with all of my co-workers but for the most part, they do a pretty good job keeping people happy. During the lecture, I raised my hand multiple times to voice my own opinion and experience on certain situations. I barely got a chance to speak. Of course, not many of my other co-workers cared to share their own stories. I didn’t like being ignored or forgotten about. I also didn’t appreciate being talked over and interrupted. You call that customer service? What the hell kind of service is that!? She tells us to listen to the customer, that the customer is never wrong, to understand the customer’s needs, etc. She showed none of this to me, or any of my co-workers. She was hard-headed and had an answer for everything… And certainly wasn’t practicing the words she was preaching!

One thing was definitely sure; she didn’t know the first thing about dog behavior or training, which many of our conflict examples revolved around. It is a pet store, after all, and our customers are pet lovers of all sorts. Just a few days ago, the dog trainer was working with an aggressive German Shepherd and I had two different couples walk into the store and tell me that there was someone outside abusing the dog. I calmly said, “There is a Nationally Certified dog trainer out there working with that dog’s aggression problems. I’m sure whatever she is doing is not causing any harm to the dog.” Of course, they didn’t understand the training methods and firmly believed the dog was being mistreated. What else can you do when you have ignorant people making assumptions? I’ve watched this trainer many times and have seen a lot of great training, happy clients, and well-behaved dogs through her. She’s obviously doing something right… You just can’t sweet talk and aggressive dog. I learned that when volunteering at the Animal Aid Society.

I could feel the blood boiling in my cheeks as the lecture went on. I became so frustrated that I decided to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the lecture and let her talk it out with other co-workers. The dog trainer was the one to butt heads with her. Which I could have seen coming, since unlike myself, she wasn’t going to let someone treat her that way. Interested in the conversation, I stuck behind and listened to their discussion while everyone else went back to work. It was really annoying to stand there and listen to the conversation taking place between the two. There are just some customers that you can never satisfy, and in a previous dispute with a customer (one I believe I blogged about before) there was absolutely no better way to handle the situation than the way it had been handled. Of course, she had an answer for every little conflict and there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise. I didn’t believe my managers and co-workers when they said I wouldn’t like the customer service manager. Of course, I get made fun of for taking notes on my iPad for work, so I figured they didn’t like her because she was like me in that I make things a big deal… I was wrong.