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Don’t make customer service reps apologize today!
By Lauren | December 26, 2008
It’s the day after Christmas, which means that stores will be jam-packed with avid shoppers looking for post-holiday bargains and unhappy gift recipients trying to return or exchange things they wish they’d never received. The stores will be hot, overcrowded and unpleasant, and sales clerks and customer service representatives will be pushed to their limits to handle the mob.
Please cut them some slack, okay?
Maybe your spouse bought you a hot pink sweater that’s two sizes too small and makes you look like a stuffed sausage. That’s not the sales clerk’s fault. Yes, the antique crystal vase Aunt Aida sent from Vienna arrived in twenty pieces. The shipping company broke it, but the beleaguered customer service rep behind the service counter didn’t. If you’ve got one problem, the person who’s trying to fix it for you has twenty. Please … be kind, lower your voice, and don’t demand more than one apology.
That’s probably a surprising request coming from someone who values apologies so much that she wrote an entire book about them. But the poor folks who’ll be handling today’s onslaught will probably have to apologize to every disappointed or irate customer who comes in the door. By the fifteenth apology (or the fiftieth), it’s very difficult to be sincere.
Maybe the customer is always right, but that doesn’t give the customer the right to take out personal unhappiness on someone who’s doing the best he or she can to make the customer happy. Sometimes, good customer service begins with the customer. It’ll be a much merrier after-Christmas if we all take a deep breath, forgive one another, and get through today together.
Topics: Apologies, Business Ethics, Personal Ethics, customer relations, ethics |
December 26th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
So, no apologies, even if they’re in the wrong? Even if they’ve done something unethical? How is that right?
December 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hi Ananymous,
Sounds like you had a bad Christmas experience - that’s a shame, and I’m sorry it happened. If a company did something wrong or unethical, you’re certainly entitled to an apology. I think it’s important, though, not to berate customer service reps simply because their employers acted badly. You wouldn’t want to be blamed for your boss’ bad behavior, would you?
Lauren
December 28th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Anonymous, she said don’t demand more than ONE apology. Pay attention.
December 28th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hi Mark,
Thanks for noticing! And my apologies to Anonymous for the spelling error in my response.
Lauren
January 1st, 2009 at 4:37 am
[...] presents Don?t make customer service reps apologize today! posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “A little consideration goes a long way during [...]