Ever felt like beating up on someone, or just holding them at your mercy?
We’re not advocating violence by any means, nor do we have an inherent kidnapping tendency, but just imagine someone who is there to look after you, getting paid to do that, in fact, who seems not to give a whit about your needs.
Yes, we are speaking about those so-called ‘customer-service representatives’ who should just be called sales-clerks, for all the service they give.
If we had to list three attributes that are essential when patronizing most local business places today, they would be courage, the patience of a saint and of course, self-control.
Courage would be needed to face some people, who, it seems, perpetually wake up on the wrong side of the bed everyday.
Grouchy, scowling or just indifferent, they hardly ever ‘exceed your expectations’ make you happy or induce you to return, giving a hollow ring to the plugging of many local companies of their ‘excellent’ customer service.
From large stores to small shops, most of the sales representatives discourage you from shopping.
In fact, most seem to want you to get out as fast as possible so as to return to discussing ‘important’ things about, let us guess, what to do tonight. We’ll oblige but also be on the lookout for friendlier places where we can go to spend our hard-earned money.
Then there are those who take ages to assist you. We advise placing the cricket bat out of reach, taking a deep breath and reciting ‘patience is a virtue’ – several times.
Others seem to take sadistic pleasure in not assisting you. Take, for example, our visit to a certain store that offers photography services the other day. After waiting in line for a while, our turn finally came but it was then that the female clerk decided that she was needed elsewhere. We were waiting to print some photographs and after waiting for a while, we moved to another terminal that was unmanned. Another waiting period and then a clerk went to the terminal that we had vacated previously and attended to persons who had arrived after us. We moved back and finally were looked after. The first clerk studiously ignored us. Was it obvious that our self-control was just barely being held onto at that point? We hope so.
After we left, we looked for a place to let off some steam. Unfortunately, none suitable for a civilized person was located. Maybe we’ll have to take up boxing.
To be fair, there are some very demanding persons, who would try the patience of the aforementioned saint. It would be remiss of us too, not to point out that there are some local companies that give a fair level of service and a few that are above par.
For our part, rather than accepting a low level of service, we should just walk up, demand real service for spending our hard-earned money and make sure the cricket bat is well secured.
In Japan, we have been advised, some companies have special rooms where employees enter and scream and punch a punching bag to vent their frustration. This, we believe would be a great idea to implement here, but for the customers. However, we do not feel that this would be done because customers are simply not served. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)