5 Simple Tips For Dealing With Nasty Customers
This blog post provides five tips for dealing with nasty customers, as well as a few examples of really great customer service experiences.
The article is informative and factual.
Every year, approximately 4 billion transactions take place across retailers globally, but only around 50% of them are successful; the other half are "Customer Service Disasters". In order to combat these problems, there have been some major changes in recent years that allow you to share your frustration with retail staff by way of social media or even through text.
You can get really angry at a retailer for not taking your problem seriously, and you can call up and hang up on the staff.
Apparently, 'nasty' customers are those customers who "didn't want the hassle of having to return their purchases". It is suggested though that emotional abuse might constitute as distasteful as physical abuse.
A warning that limits to how far one's behavior can go in such situations are helpful as it prevents you from being dismissed as a total nutter or "abusive" customer. The article also warns about consequences of abusive language or actions towards store staff and reminds us that we should remain polite at all times.
I would add that even to this day, I have yet to see a company take seriously the kind of abuse I've witnessed customers suffering at the hands of their employees. There's something incredibly satisfying about taking away the power from an ignorant or ill-intentioned employee that once held us with trust and pride in their ability to "serve".
I'll close this review with an example of great customer service: A staff member at DSW (one of my favorite stores) buckled over laughing when I asked her what size shoe runs I'd need in order to fit into a pair which was too tight.
The most memorable thing she said, "Those are women's shoes, sir. For women."
"I can see that," I said, "but I thought they fit men's feet as well."
This was the moment where she burst into hysterics. She asked me if I had a pair of men's shoes that were too tight. "I would say so," she said.
"I would think it would be impossible to find a pair of men's shoes which are too big for my feet," I responded, and then we both started laughing at how absurd this whole conversation was. And how we were both enjoying it immensely. It was great. The moral of the story? Don't let employees make fun of you. It's great.
Know of any other good examples of customer service? Share them below!
I'll keep you guys posted on the outcome of the complaint.
Well, we did it! We finally exercised our right to simply return something we purchased in a store and demand our money back. 5/6/14 UPDATE: So I'm writing this as if this is a handy guide for any Canadian who has never experienced dealing with returns before, but I should probably share that I have been returning things to retailers since before I knew my birthdate.
I went to a good friend's going away pool party last week.
She bought me a gift as I was leaving that had a receipt that read, "Thank you for being my friend."
The sentiment was sweet but I didn't really want it.
So I returned it.
I returned clothes, shoes, makeup and jewellery at my local mall store to the tune of $200 in value for something like $50 worth of store credit which I used to buy something else from the store.
Well, it was nice to be able to do that at a mall store.
Most customers probably can't do that though.
It's not like I didn't want the items or anything; I just didn't want them for the prices I paid for them originally.
I realize that stores make money when someone wants a specific item but doesn't want to pay full price for it.
That's why all kinds of deals exist, coupons, fliers and special offers.
So I'm lucky that I can just walk into a store and return something if it was an impulse buy that I didn't really want or need, and then buy something else instead.
But that's not the case for the majority of retail customers, is it?
We don't all have a Best Buy store credit card that lets us take a few hundred dollars in merchandise back to the store for store credit.
We don't all have a credit card that would allow us to buy our kid a pair of shoes for $3 and return them for store credit.
That's why so many retail employees are concerned when we ask for our money back.
They're wondering, "Are you going to come back and buy the same thing again? Or have you changed your mind about what you bought?"
I understand their nervousness because I know that if I were in their shoes I'd be worried as well.
Have you ever tried to return something to a location that was too busy during hours when you were not in the mood for crowds?
You know, a single person at the front desk who is forced to handle all of the returns because customers' requests often end up being handled incorrectly by an under-staffed store?
You try telling them you don't want the item anymore, ask them why they haven't given you your money back and then tell them that you're going to leave if they don't give it to you right now.
Yeah. It doesn't go well. And now we get into the nitty gritty part of this article.
I went to a small clothing store in Vancouver (an accidental fashionista fashion victim) that I like to frequent during the colder months because they have items that are not available anywhere else and they generally have items on sale.
They also tend to give a decent amount of store credit for returns, which is even better.
The day before this one particular return, I made an impulse purchase with my discount card for something like $10 worth of merchandise.
I was feeling bad about it but ultimately I had no choice because my credit card was stolen and it was my only form of payment at the time.
Fast forward a couple days later.
Conclusion: I wasn't happy with the quality of my purchase so I wanted to return it.
I was a little busy at work but thought it would be a good idea to stop in and ask for my money back.
"Oh, why don't you come back later today?" they asked.
I explained to them that if I did that I'd lose out on the chance to make some money on the transaction and make sure that what I was returning was in fact returned to them.
"It's not far from here," they said, "so why don't you just do it now."
Great idea! They were really nice about it, too.