Getting Flustered and/or Overwhelmed at Work

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JohnnyLurg
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14 Aug 2017, 6:43 pm

I have been working in customer service for the past two weeks at a greater capacity than I have ever worked with customers in my life (I had two previous retail jobs but they mostly involved stocking and recovery) and was wondering for AS people who work in customer service, how do you deal with being flustered and/or overwhelmed while dealing with multiple customers at once, particularly when one or more customers is upset? It is also my first cashier job and I work with a particularly complex and difficult cash register system but I am getting better at handling it. My supervisors are really supportive of me and understanding of my AS so that is a plus too. I think I will fine in the long run and have gotten some great advice already from my supervisors, but am interested in advice from other people on the spectrum who work or who have worked in customer service.



Sweetleaf
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21 Aug 2017, 8:02 pm

I don't get jobs doing customer service...I simply would not be able to handle it I don't think, it would be way too stressful. Maybe that is not the most helpful if you want to deal with customer service jobs...but there are jobs that aren't so much about that. I myself got a job dishwashing and it does get overwhelming sometimes on busy days when there just ends up being tons and tons of dishes...but at least I am not having to try to keep customers happy and stuff like that. In fact I find the front of house culture to be a different world then back in the kitchen and dish-pit or sometimes its better described as dish hell. I know if I tried to wait tables and such it would be very unpleasant, also a lot of waitress people seem to be kind of pushy/loud and just kind of intimidating...so that would also be hard to deal with.


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emmasma
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22 Aug 2017, 1:34 pm

I have worked in customer service for most of my adult life. My mom was a waitress and I worked with her for 10 years. I think it was because she was there that it worked out because people were more accepting of me as part of the "family".
It was very hard at first, but I found ways to harness my awkwardness. I am naturally very helpful and respectful. I also liked this type of work because there is always something to go do so I don't have to be stuck in one place with my coworkers. 20 years later I can honestly say I handle customers better than most people; although I'm still very much incompetent in real social interactions. I think it made me happy sometimes because I could have positive interactions with real people which I don't do otherwise, then they would leave and I (usually) wouldn't have to talk to them long enough to reveal my awkwardness.
It did get really hard for me if I had a customer that made me uncomfortable or was mad at me. It made me act weird with all the other customers sometimes, but I had to remember they will leave soon and there will be fresh people who aren't mad.
This is not to say it was not hard. I got panicky almost every day when it was time to go to work (still do). I do find it much harder to deal with coworkers than customers though. They are the ones I have to keep coming back to even once they start to figure out how I am.

This actually made me miss being in service, I started a kitchen job a few months ago. I like the work and I'm starting to figure it out, but originally I was hoping to be moved out front when a position opened up. Now one did and I don't think they want to consider me for it because they have seen my personality, but not when taking care of customers. I guess I'm a cook now.
Sorry that was all a bit scattered, just some thoughts. I hope it works out for you :D