Church Voices

Apparently you can’t train good customer service… or if you can, companies don’t know how.

Don’t ask me how I’m doing if:

1) You don’t really care.

2) It isn’t going to change the way you treat me.

I was in the local grocery store the other day and the cashier asked me if I found everything okay.  It’s company policy for them to ask.  I’m not sure why, though, because when I explained that in fact I had not found what I wanted, she said, “I’m sorry.  Your total is …”. 

Today I was on the phone activating a credit card so that I could get free stuff with it (just kidding).  The website wasn’t working properly so I had to call.  The automated system transferred me to a live person who asked me how I was.  I was frustrated from a series of events including the problems on the website and made that known (in more of a defeated tone than one of anger).  She proceeded to tell me about some program to get more of my money and I said, “No, thank you,” as soon as she took a breath.  She then asked me to keep in mind blah blah blah.  The spiel was taking even longer than they normally do, so I interrupted again.  Only instead of simply saying “No thanks,” I asked her if she heard me tell her I was frustrated at the beginning of the call.  She said that she did.  I then told her that when somebody is already frustrated, it’s not a good idea to press the issue when they say no.  She then told me that she was simply asking me to keep in mind blah blah blah (seriously, she went right back to the spiel).

Don’t ask if it doesn’t matter.