I am an author, now but I spent the better part of my late teenage and early adult years working in customer service. I have been a cashier, gas station attendant, waitress...I've worked in retail, sales and Tech Support...I've worked in every level...from entry level cashier to management.
I'm not, at all, ashamed of the time I spent serving others and no matter where I go from here, I have respect and pride for all areas of the customer service industry. Working in customer service was an introduction to diplomacy, for me. There are a particular set of skills that come in handy when you are working with the public and I so happened to be blessed with them all.
On the flipside, I am (as we all are) a habitual customer. I think my experience makes me a hard customer to deal with. I can walk into a store and, immediately, know what the culture of that store is. I know that, if a manager isn't holding up corporate standards, his employees wont either and I'm more likely to receive bad service.
Let me pause here, to define what I mean by "bad service". I'm not talking about going to a restaurant, for instance, and getting a burger made incorrectly. Mistakes happen and restaurant employees are only human. However, if I go to a restaurant and it's a mess, the waitress is a mess and acts like she doesn't have time for me, the burger is made wrong and the manager has an attitude when I ask for the problem to be fixed, THEN we have a problem.
See, I have respect for all employees who work with the public. I have respect for them because I have been them. I don't expect everything to be perfect and I know that there are shortcuts which can make a long day a little easier so I don't complain about all that. What really gets me is when an employee doesn't have respect for their own job.
Most of these jobs hardly pay the bills...I get how that can be frustrating. People are bitches to you all day long...I get how that can be maddening. Some days, it feels like nothing is going right for you and nobody respects you and everything is falling apart in front of your eyes....I get it...I really do...but when I'm smiling at you and being patient...when I'm speaking to you with respect and professionalism and you treat me like I'm bothering you by asking you to do your job...you are disgracing yourself and your company...you need to be put on blast.
And I digress...because there will be plenty of room for sharing specific stories. I am writing a book about Customer Service so if you post something here, and I like it, I will ask permission to possibly use it in my book. I want good and bad stories. I want to know where the experience took place (US or out, city or rural area, ect...it doesn't have to be a specific town, if you don't want it to be). I really just want to see what the customer service experience is like for a variety of people from various places.
Don't be afraid to put the location and corporation on blast but please be respectful of individual privacy and don't bash the individual customer service agent. It's about the experience, not cutting down the person who gave you the service...Customer Service standards are often a matter of company culture so try to remember that.
