My work history has been pretty similar to most others. Worked at a Pizza Hut as cheap labor all through high school, call centers during summers when back from college, nanny gigs, the usual. Customer service has been a part of all the above listed jobs. And to be honest I always felt like I was pretty good at doing right by the customer while being fair and honest to my employer. I am absolutely a rules kinda girl. Give me the boundaries and I will follow them. But give me an upset person and I will do anything within my power to make it right. I have been lucky in my limited retail experience, in that rarely did I ever have any real power and thus when things got really hairy they moved on up, and two, I usually got to be the good guy. Well Town X, you have done it again. I work part of my job as a job coach and supervisor at a retail establishment. Which means when the problem moves up, it now comes to me. One regular afternoon I was working with an associate in the office when an older woman comes in already yelling over some wooden blocks. At first I had no idea what she was talking about. Then she laid it out. There were wooden blocks that had been carved into letters and painted that together spelled Christmas. An even older woman that she met in the store, had to look throughout the wood section to find all the letters. As she put it, search through the wood pile (which would not look like a pile if customers like herself did not look and then throw into a mess what had just been organized). For the time it took them to find the pieces she felt that the $.50 they were marked was too much. I put my best customer service skills to work, while at heart still remaining the rule follower I am. The blocks were fairly priced, they followed the guidelines we are given, and I explained this to this woman, who decided then was a good time to go a little postal. She started screaming how I was stealing an elderly woman's Christmas and how heartless I was.
Now let me be totally clear. If this woman had come back with a coat and explained that the older woman could not afford the coat, but clearly needed it for the upcoming winter, I would be the first person to give her the coat even if I had to take it out of my own pocket. But for decorative Christmas blocks, I felt like this was not the same scenario. So after a great deal of yelling, she stormed away yelling, "She IS SATAN!". I am not going to lie, a reaction like that seemed a bit over dramatic, not to mention the fact that she expressed this opinion to every customer and associate she ran into on the way up front. Then the irony of it all. Twenty minutes later I was called up again to help a woman at the register. Who of all people was it? Oh yes, the satan deeming drama queen from Town X herself... And what does this woman have to say after having a little time to cool off... "I am sorry to have been so harsh with you, but I meant it from the very bottom of my heart." I think she should give a workshop on apologizing, woman had class. So after dwelling all night over it, and realizing that somehow I have got to grow thicker skin (the elderly woman by the way still got her Christmas blocks in case anyone was wondering) I go back in the next day to have her come in AGAIN. This time to relate the story to my co-worker who later told me she used to work at our establishment. And that she came in to tell him she was not sorry for what she did, she still felt I was evil and that she had been off her medications for over a week. Coincidence... I don't think so. One last piece of advice for Town X, don't elect this woman for any city council positions, big mistake!
Please tell me she paid the asking price for the blocks?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think $4.50 is going to buy anything else for Christmas (unless she was going to buy a couple candy canes, but in my experience, old people don't eat them).
Finally, you should have told her you're not Satan but that you are actually a walking mirror :)