Is this a good place to Yell about stupid customers!!??

I own an automotive glass installation shop.
A guy came in for his appointment and I could tell he was picky so I took every precaution and cleaned his whole vehicle when I was done. A more than perfect job.
So he picks it up and drives away, no comment, no thank you.
Today, 5 days later, his sons stops by. It's raining and when the wipers go across the w/sh, there are some spots, like contaminates, oil, road debris...who knows. I go in and grab some glass cleaner and spray one spot, wipe really hard and "Poof", magically fixed. I tell him come back tomorrow when I'm not swamped and I'll clean the whole thing and give him an Aquapel w/sh treatment for free.

SO, his dad calls 15 mins. later asking me what my problem is and what the hell am I gonna do about this problem. I laughed and asked if it was a prank call which only sent him more over the edge! Then I told him to calm down, we all know how that goes when your already angry, lol.

It turned into a 10 min. Loud discussion and me wanting to cut the guy Really bad. I told him how ridiculous this call was over a dirty windshield. I also told him I will clean it once for free but the next time he needs his glass clean it won't be free!

The customer is Not always right!!!!

Yep. Sometimes you just have to tell 'em not to come back.

Funny - there's a related thread here: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1391785

-js

I could do pages of this without even trying.
Yesterday a customer called about a custom motorcycle part I make. Wondered if I should have made the bolts on the left side left handed thread so rotation would help keep them tight....I explained that the part does not rotate..
If there wasn't a law against it there would be a bounty on them

reefvilla wrote in post #17082421
I own an automotive glass installation shop.
A guy came in for his appointment and I could tell he was picky so I took every precaution and cleaned his whole vehicle when I was done. A more than perfect job.
So he picks it up and drives away, no comment, no thank you.
Today, 5 days later, his sons stops by. It's raining and when the wipers go across the w/sh, there are some spots, like contaminates, oil, road debris...who knows. I go in and grab some glass cleaner and spray one spot, wipe really hard and "Poof", magically fixed. I tell him come back tomorrow when I'm not swamped and I'll clean the whole thing and give him an Aquapel w/sh treatment for free.

SO, his dad calls 15 mins. later asking me what my problem is and what the hell am I gonna do about this problem. I laughed and asked if it was a prank call which only sent him more over the edge! Then I told him to calm down, we all know how that goes when your already angry, lol.

It turned into a 10 min. Loud discussion and me wanting to cut the guy Really bad. I told him how ridiculous this call was over a dirty windshield. I also told him I will clean it once for free but the next time he needs his glass clean it won't be free!

The customer is Not always right!!!!

The customer is always right. Misinformed, perhaps, stupid, ignorant, uneducated, and downright asinine, but always right.

A place I worked in the past had a customer rating system:

A — Most customers (including new ones) given the benefit of the doubt. Their word was their bond.

B — Pay up front: no purchase orders or bill-me-laters, but credit cards or checks were okay. Customers got into this status by taking too damned long to pay their bills. Interestingly, several city, county, and state departments fell into this category.

C — Cash only: no credit cards or checks. Customers got here because their credit cards and/or checks bounced. There were some customers in this group whose credit was so bad that we wouldn't do repairs unless they paid for estimated repair fees before work began.

PNG — Persona Non Grata: we wouldn't sell to them (or do repairs) if they came in with a suitcase full of gold bullion! Customers got here because they were such pains in the ass that it just wasn't worth it to sell to them; virtually every sale was a loss.

B, C, and PNG customers were flagged on the computer. PNG customers, about 30 when I was there, were also posted on a publicly visible list behind the sales counter. If you lived in the area, some of those names would surprise you.

So the guy called me up today and said he really appreciated me trying to work him in today but he couldn't make it. Would it be possible to do it on Monday. I said sure, anytime you want. Ok, thanks for your help. He was just as nice as could be.

Either he's bi-polar, just plain crazy or sat around last night thinking about it and realized he was Way over reacting.


.

Might have finally had a chat with his son and realized he didn't have all facts on the table the first time.

While the customer is not always right, what is even more wrong is commenting in public.

I understand the frustrations, I've dealt with some pretty nasty people as a team lead / supervisor for technical support on communications systems. As well as counter support to walk in's for cellular service (WORST ever!). Some people just don't have a clue, and just don't give a damn about what chaos they create as long as they get what they want. I've hung up on people who have sworn at me, and ordered people off the property that have abused me or my staff.

I've even quit 2 jobs where the management has not maintained a civil and respectable attitude towards the staff. And I don't hide the reason I've left.

As much as such people/customers deserve a good kick in the pants, public shaming is not a healthy approach. It can backfire quite quickly in multiple ways.

If you give them room they will take adavantage of you. Politely sticking to your policies will be the best approach. Once you give an inch, then you will pay and pay again.

I may help someone who asks politely, but the moment the temperature raises, the "No" comes out. I really feel for the people who are so afraid of losing their jobs that they cannot stand up to such abuse.

20droger wrote in post #17084283
The customer is always right. Misinformed, perhaps, stupid, ignorant, uneducated, and downright asinine, but always right.

Sorry, this is the biggest myth when it comes to customer service. The customer isn't always right and when they are being dicks then the company has a right to refuse service.

Customers can be wrong and good customer service will politely tell them that they are wrong even if it means losing them. If they go somewhere else then they aren't worth it.

Some will abuse that kind of thinking because they believe that they are right when it comes to service, when however they have a over expectations on what they should be getting and what they are getting then they are the ones with the issue not the company.

Sometimes people are being dicks for whatever reason. You are only catching them at a single point in their life. You don't know what is happening before the phone call and after. The only thing that you can do is to stick to your policy regarding what you are willing to do about keeping them happy.

When someone is angry and have a complaint (regardless if they are legitimate or not) then you need to listen, you need to be the calm one and listen to what they are saying. Don't react to the way you are being treated. once you know what they are really complaining about then you can figure out how far you are willing to go to keep them happy. Sometimes they will be unhappy about the service or the end result and sometimes they are just plain wrong about everything. but listen because in that moment they believe they are right.

Once you understand what the issue is you can also figure out if your willing to keep them as a customer.

Mark, i agree with you 100%

keeperseeker wrote in post #17084824
Mark, i agree with you 100%

+1


I have been doing this 20 years and will go way out of my way to make my customers happy, I have to because it's a small area I live in and people talk.
That being said, I also Give what I Get!
Going about a problem in the manner that this customer did only makes me shut down and not cater to their needs.


.

The customer is always a customer, no right, no wrong and sometimes just very difficult.....

JAZZ D.P.G. wrote in post #17084611
While the customer is not always right, what is even more wrong is commenting in public.

I understand the frustrations, I've dealt with some pretty nasty people as a team lead / supervisor for technical support on communications systems. As well as counter support to walk in's for cellular service (WORST ever!). Some people just don't have a clue, and just don't give a damn about what chaos they create as long as they get what they want. I've hung up on people who have sworn at me, and ordered people off the property that have abused me or my staff.

I've even quit 2 jobs where the management has not maintained a civil and respectable attitude towards the staff. And I don't hide the reason I've left.

As much as such people/customers deserve a good kick in the pants, public shaming is not a healthy approach. It can backfire quite quickly in multiple ways.

If you give them room they will take adavantage of you. Politely sticking to your policies will be the best approach. Once you give an inch, then you will pay and pay again.

I may help someone who asks politely, but the moment the temperature raises, the "No" comes out. I really feel for the people who are so afraid of losing their jobs that they cannot stand up to such abuse.

Ditto! Been there, done that. But before "been there, done that", I had the benefit of receiving some lessons. Many moons ago, I was in sales. Before putting new hired on the job, we had to go through 8 weeks of training. One of the lesson that I would never forget was how to deal and handle irate customer.

When something is steaming, the steam must be blown all out before it can cool down. Same principle applies to a person.

Let the customer scream all s/he wants, eventually, s/he will stop (hey, s/he has to breath or take a break too ) Then, when you speak, the customer can hear you and maybe even listen to you. If you cut off the irate customer in the middle of bawling you out, guess what? S/he will start all over again and the unpleasant situation would take even longer.

It worked so well that I even use this technique with my family. What's so funny is, when seeing that I sit calmly and listen to their yelling, they get a bit confused. I think they expect that you scream right back, and when you don't, it startles them a bit.

In later years when I was in management, those lessons made me a better manager. That was because I learned to listen by being silent.

Customer may not always be right, but they always have something you want, namely money. Your tolerance level is up to you. I have learned to never take it personally.