"Tough" Customer Service?

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I've been doing customer service calls for the past four months, and every day I always think how much better things would be if we would stop coddling the customers. Like, if a customer is acting like a spoiled child, demanding unreasonable things for ridiculous problems, what if we were able to tell them they were being ridiculous and then outright refuse to help them? Or, if they're yelling and cursing and making a scene, we could tell them to get out of our store until they're ready to act like a civilized adult. Maybe if we started doing that, instead of rewarding them for their horrible behavior, then people would eventually stop doing it. And if they quit shopping with us... well, we're a big company. We'll get by (they'll probably be back tomorrow anyway, heh). I mean, if they have a legitimate problem then I'll fix it. But if they're wanting a $500 gift card because the potatoes in our produce section gave them a dirty look, then we're just wasting our time taking that complaint and we should be able to hang up on them. Obviously this will never happen, but it's nice to think about.

I can't be the only one who feels this way. What do you guys think?

I agree.

You work at home office, right? I work at one of the stores as a fitting room attendant, and God the way I have to baby customers when they get angry about stupid stuff drives me nuts. I also am the guard dog for the managers, so I get the joy of subtly prodding people who want to speak to management about why they need to so I can then either send them to management, or try to gently convince them they should be speaking to someone in the actual department they dealt with.

I agree with you. I've worked in retail and hope never to return to any kind of customer service role. I think people have been conditioned to believe that if they act like a three-year-old throwing a tantrum they will get what they want, because a lot of the time it's true. The customer is always right, you know, and we can't have them going to the competition.

I have daydreams of owning a shop with a rule that all staff are welcome to tell difficult clients: "We would love to resolve your problem/our mistake when you are more calm. Until then, please leave." (Or equivalent for a phone contact.) No one should have to deal with abusive idiots as part of their job.

It's too bad you all have had bad experiences.

The last 20 or so years before I retired I was in customer service for a small manufacturer of machinery. I handled almost all of the service calls for machinery, and was pretty lucky because these were commercial customers, not the general public. It's not that I didn't have an angry customer from time to time but that degree of separation was just what I needed to survive successfully (for me).

When I got someone really angry on the phone I let them know right away I was on "their side" and proceeded in that manner; see what I mean about "that degree of separation?". Our customers were scattered across mostly North America and I kind of "grew into" the job after being in the Assembly Department for a couple of years...Which made me very happy....And I had learned the procedures so I could properly help the customers.

When I first started in Service there were only 2 people and when I left there were about 15. About 6 months after I retired they needed someone to cover a brief personnel shortage and I agreed. What a mistake...After just a half day of the noise and commotion (it was terrible) I was ready to leave...But stuck it out for the entire week...And told them I wouldn't be available in the future...Whew!

Absolutely ridiculously unreasonable customers deserve to be told no in a professional manner.

However, most big businesses are way ahead of you on the math. It costs them less to give in to whiney idiots than it does to say no to them and have them complain to others/online, which costs them a lot more business than just giving in to them in the first place. Overall, it's better for business to be nice to even the most unreasonable customers & that's why your bosses bosses have you do it.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Serial complainers have grown accustomed to not accepting a corporations' first offer of compensation much like someone fighting an insurance company in court. They default to declining & seeing what more they can get. I doubt they always expect to get more.. they're just conditioned to try for it.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.