I’m still sour a decade later over some customer interactions. One of the most notable was during my time as a barista. It was a busy weekend and quite loud in the shop with a line out the door. The line was to the left of the register and it’s important to know I only have about 50 percent hearing out of my left ear so most people are on my “bad side.”
Now this isn’t a big deal, since if I’m looking at you I hear just fine or if it’s quiet I can pick up on sounds from that side no problem. In a loud busy cafe, it’s pretty bad. So I go to help the next customer and say “hi how can I help you today” or something. The Karen replies that “I was very rude to her, she said hi earlier and I didn’t reply.”
She was a regular and I recognized her but we didn’t have a rapport or anything but I would have definitely greeted her had I heard. I apologized and explained I’m pretty deaf in my left ear and just didn’t hear her. Story should have ended there but she goes ballistic and starts calling me a liar and that I made it up. Luckily a more friendly regular was also in line and backed me up.
Still pisses me off. Everyone should work a service job just to learn how to treat people.
If it helps any, people that jump to the conclusion that you are just arbitrarily lying to cover yourself usually assume that because it’s how they approach life, never taking responsibility for themselves.
A lady asked me how to get service on her landline phone. At the department store I was working at. It was very confusing, I did actually give her info on a local service that ensures the elderly on fixed incomes always have service, at no ongoing cost at least. She just RAGED at me for being so incompetent I couldn’t turn on her phone service from the department store, or wouldn’t personally go out and install it. I’ve never been called so many names in my life. And yet I still feel sorry for her. Customer service really is a constant exercise in empathy and checked projection, you can’t get mad at customer 6 just because customer 5 was a horrorshow lunatic.
I’m still sour a decade later over some customer interactions. One of the most notable was during my time as a barista. It was a busy weekend and quite loud in the shop with a line out the door. The line was to the left of the register and it’s important to know I only have about 50 percent hearing out of my left ear so most people are on my “bad side.”
Now this isn’t a big deal, since if I’m looking at you I hear just fine or if it’s quiet I can pick up on sounds from that side no problem. In a loud busy cafe, it’s pretty bad. So I go to help the next customer and say “hi how can I help you today” or something. The Karen replies that “I was very rude to her, she said hi earlier and I didn’t reply.”
She was a regular and I recognized her but we didn’t have a rapport or anything but I would have definitely greeted her had I heard. I apologized and explained I’m pretty deaf in my left ear and just didn’t hear her. Story should have ended there but she goes ballistic and starts calling me a liar and that I made it up. Luckily a more friendly regular was also in line and backed me up.
Still pisses me off. Everyone should work a service job just to learn how to treat people.
If it helps any, people that jump to the conclusion that you are just arbitrarily lying to cover yourself usually assume that because it’s how they approach life, never taking responsibility for themselves.
A lady asked me how to get service on her landline phone. At the department store I was working at. It was very confusing, I did actually give her info on a local service that ensures the elderly on fixed incomes always have service, at no ongoing cost at least. She just RAGED at me for being so incompetent I couldn’t turn on her phone service from the department store, or wouldn’t personally go out and install it. I’ve never been called so many names in my life. And yet I still feel sorry for her. Customer service really is a constant exercise in empathy and checked projection, you can’t get mad at customer 6 just because customer 5 was a horrorshow lunatic.