I have been working in Customer Service department for past six years and as far as I remember, yes, I have definitely met some horrible, angry and annoyed customers but still I believe that customer can never be wrong. The phrase is rightly said and made to have a strong business approach that customer is always right.
Myself as a customer, I always prefer and recommend those products and services where I get more customization and privileges, where importance is given to the customers. In this era, most of the business focus on customer satisfaction and providing their best through customer services. I would like to share one story of mine as a customer. Me and my father were in a big department store to buy groceries and essentials for the whole month. It was all crowded and we were unable to handle the trolley so we took 2 baskets. You can say that whole trolley material was divided into two baskets. Our baskets were full loaded. Now, we headed to the checkout counter.
I saw a separate counter for basket people. One of their representative told me to go to basket counter as it was not much crowded. When our turn came, the counter person make faces and said this much stuff is of trolley and you should be in trolley counter. I politely said that we were asked to check out here by one of your representative. He then rudely started talking and said they do not know this counter is limited for 10 items per basket only. Now, I was out of my mind and my patience level was over. I started yelling and said where is that written? How could you talk to a customer like that? I am paying you but begging for these items. I was like out of control just because of that behavior from counter guy. He started taking my stuff but I was not OK with that. I asked for the floor manager. The guard also rush to me as if I am a thief there. I told the whole story to the floor manager and asked to train these guys or else they will ruin your business. At least they do know how to talk to the customers. Even if I am wrong, they need to talk politely and with lots of patience. Floor manager acknowledged and asked me to calm down. I told them to make sure he didn’t get terminated but instead make him understand the basic knowledge of handling customers. I also told them to make a notice of 10 items per basket so that customers can clearly see the message and act accordingly.
In this situation, counter guy could be right but as a customer, I am always right. This needs to understand by the front team that customer is never wrong, they are just unaware of the policies, terms and conditions of the products or services they bought so, it’s the responsibility of front end team or after sales i.e. customer service department to handle them properly and answer their questions even if they look dumb, annoying or foolish questions. It’s their right to get satisfied after buying or paying for the services. Or even if they didn’t buy anything, they have right to ask and get satisfied before buying.
I have handled so many cases and so many angry customers but I won’t say they were wrong, there were people who were stubborn and not ready to listen but the back story makes them act like this. As the one offering the services, we should always be patient enough to deal any type of customer in a polite way. To put customer on a right direction, it is necessary to have full product knowledge and people who are on front and do not have full product knowledge used to blame customers and say they are wrong. Whatever I have said and shared in this post is based on my experience and my personal views and opinions regarding customer satisfaction which could differ from others. I hope i was clear in sharing my views. Cheers!!!