Those of us who have worked retail or in the food service industry know that an employee’s needs are always subservient to the customer. We aren’t all lucky enough to work for Continental Airlines.
So we grit our teeth and help even the cranky customers–the ones who demand a refund for a book they poured coffee on, or who yell at you as though you personally made the computers at the credit card processing service go down. The ones who insist on a new pizza being made because they arrived three hours too late and it’s cold.
It’s hard to take pride in your work in such humble circumstances, but a lot of us do (or did.) There is the satisfaction of helping a customer find exactly the right Christmas gift, or the item they have been trying to locate for ten years. Or in making twenty pizzas for a party at the retirement home down the street. The customer smiles gratefully, says “thank you so much, you made my day,” and suddenly your day is made, too.
Too bad they don’t all leave us $50,000 and a car.
December 30th, 2007 at 8:50 am
I like how he is described as kind of mean. I suppose we can’t really know what’s behind the cantankerousness of others sometimes.
December 30th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
I’ve had a lot of interactions with customers who could not be “fired” (I used to work for a utility company), and it was interesting to see how some people reacted after being absolutely out of control. The ones who would take the time to call back or write a letter apologizing for their behavior really stood out for me.