Office Depot has an unfair return policy. They charge you a re-stocking fee of 15% of the purchase price. If the product turns out faulty and you just don't feel like replacing it for whatever reason, they sock it to you.
We get complaints about price fairly often. You can address intellectually why you have to charge what you charge. It may be only that it's "company policy". Restocking charge is an example of that.
Customer Service is different in my view. I would fire an employee in a heart beat if they were disrespectful to my clients. If the client is being rude or threatening to them, they are to leave or get a supervisor involved. That supervisor presumably is trained to handle unruly clients. Some people, you just can't satisfy.
EVERYONE thinks our rates for electricity are TOO HIGH. That doesn't make me want to run over the customer service supervisor. But if that supervisor was insulting, rude or otherwise disrespectful to me, it starts to become personal.
I was employed by a unionized firm once that "wanted out". It wasn't due to the employees, and some of the die hard union people left out of principle, not because they didn't like working for the company.
It was a tough decision to make, but was needed as the union was inflexible. So the company was able to make a clean break. Later, long after I left, the company was sold to some larger firm from up north. While they were not union, they were very rude to customers. They ended up running a good name into the ground.
The moral... it's not the Union all by itself.
We quite possibly have a management problem. And possibly Mattey's style and Stanton's are similar. That could explain a lot of discontent.
But let's face it.... would YOU want to work for Lake Worth Utilities? Talk about a thankless job.... and that's in the job description!
His complaint wasn't about customer service. It was about price for service.
ReplyDeleteWhatever. Argue. Customer service, or the lack of, is the whole enchilada.
ReplyDeleteOffice Depot has an unfair return policy. They charge you a re-stocking fee of 15% of the purchase price. If the product turns out faulty and you just don't feel like replacing it for whatever reason, they sock it to you.
ReplyDeleteWe get complaints about price fairly often. You can address intellectually why you have to charge what you charge. It may be only that it's "company policy". Restocking charge is an example of that.
ReplyDeleteCustomer Service is different in my view. I would fire an employee in a heart beat if they were disrespectful to my clients. If the client is being rude or threatening to them, they are to leave or get a supervisor involved. That supervisor presumably is trained to handle unruly clients. Some people, you just can't satisfy.
EVERYONE thinks our rates for electricity are TOO HIGH. That doesn't make me want to run over the customer service supervisor. But if that supervisor was insulting, rude or otherwise disrespectful to me, it starts to become personal.
That was my point. Not just to argue.
Waht about when employees are constantly rude? It takes an arm and a leg to get rid of them because of the Unions.
ReplyDeleteI was employed by a unionized firm once that "wanted out". It wasn't due to the employees, and some of the die hard union people left out of principle, not because they didn't like working for the company.
ReplyDeleteIt was a tough decision to make, but was needed as the union was inflexible. So the company was able to make a clean break. Later, long after I left, the company was sold to some larger firm from up north. While they were not union, they were very rude to customers. They ended up running a good name into the ground.
The moral... it's not the Union all by itself.
We quite possibly have a management problem. And possibly Mattey's style and Stanton's are similar. That could explain a lot of discontent.
But let's face it.... would YOU want to work for Lake Worth Utilities? Talk about a thankless job.... and that's in the job description!