Well, last Thursday at New Horizon's during out week long Career Services II class. There was a subject we talked about that night I could relate to a lot. It was the subject of Customer Service. New Horizons did stress the importance of customer service. And personally, I know. All those years working a grocery store like Harris Teeter, they did, too. In fact, I remember almost a year ago we had various different Harris Teeter employees from different HT locations have a mandatory employee meeting at the University Mall. And yes, this mandatory employee meeting was about the importance of customer service.
We shared stories about times when we had both bad and good customer service. I told the story about both. First the bad story. It was about a couple of weeks ago when Carson and I ate a restaurant we liked close to where she lives. However, of all times we been there, we never saw them serve us this badly. In fact, the service was usually pretty good (as you figured I am NOT giving out the name of this restaurant). However, I said no baked beans, they gave me baked beans. They had to fix it and gave me a caesar salad instead. But when I told them how they screwed up Carson's order, that got the interest of the instructor. Carson ordered salmon on her lunch salad but they gave her chicken. Even though, the employee was new. The class instructor did point that out, but he couldn't deny the fact that bad customer service is bad customer service.
I did tell them about the good story I had with customer service. It was last December when my family and I were getting new iPhones. We went to the Apple store. Now, all the times I have done business with Apple (especially at the the Apple store) I always though there were very nice. They took the time to answer all our questions, helped us set up our phones, and guided us through. Never hassled us once. And always smiled. The instructor said he didn't always have good service with Apple, but I did. So, far as I know, Apple does offer good customer service.
We had a role playing exercise. I volunteered to take part in the exercise. I played the employee and another classmate played the angry customer. My job was to stay cool and try to answer his question best I could. His job was to express his indignations and chew me out for it (yes, that was what the instructor wanted him to do to show the class what you will probably go though). I was there trying to answer the questions the best I could. My partner said when can you bring the phone to the technician. I said, "He is a floor up, sir. And I'm sorry, this isn't a cordless phone I am speaking to you with, but I will get you directly to him."
People thought the "This isn't a cordless phone line was witty." They (class and instructor) thought I did a good job handing being chewed out by a customer. Even my partner with the role playing exercise though I did. He even told me he was trying to be funny and use some colorful language in the process. The irony is I told him, all those years working as cashier I really was chewed out by customers like that. And yes, they did use colorful language when they did. He was shocked to hear that. I told him employee are pretty much gum to customers. They chew us up, and spit us out. However, under no circumstances can we talk back. We have to treat the customers like royalty, even if they treat us like dirt. Yes, people Harris Teeter does take customer service SERIOUSLY!
So, yes, I guess I took it well because I have had personal experience being chewed out by customers. That and I studied in the theater. Well, I just thought I'd share that with you all.
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