I apologize for my absence over the last few days. Several different times I have gone to log-in with a really good post to type out. Each of these times I became distracted and somehow forgot to come back later.
Hmmm, just happened again.
7 hours later.
Prepare yourselves folks, I’m on a rampage tonight. But for good reason, I assure you.
Most of you know that I work in a hotel. In the hospitality industry, we live and die by our service scores. You might think I am being dramatic… but trust me, I am not. I personally know someone who was laid off last month for not being able to bring up his hotel’s service scores quick enough. At my hotel we have an entire committee dedicated to reviewing each and every guest survey that is returned. We meet weekly and talk about the follow-up calls we’ve made to the guest, etc. We take guest service very seriously.
You can imagine how hard it must be for me when I go somewhere and am treated rudely. My first thought is always, “Why on earth would you choose to work in the service industry if being nice to people is so obviously impossible for you?” Now, don’t get me wrong- we all have our bad days. I don’t always feel like Miss Sunshine… but the days that I am feeling so sick/cranky/whatever that I can’t bear to be cheerful… well, I just suck it up anyway. People don’t pay to stay at my hotel so that they get to hear about my terrible day/stomach cramps/whatever.
I bet you are all wondering what could have possibly happened to me this week that would make me so bitter. Hold on to your seats folks, it’s worse than you could have imagined.
Today, as you all might know, is Administrative Professional’s Day. I was put in charge of ordering a cake for the Sales Admin. I called Cold Stone and dealt with a lovely gentleman that we will call “Steve.” During the course of our conversation Steve managed to guilt me for making him come in early to decorate my cake, chastise me for not ordering 48 hours in advance, and in general was nothing but passive aggressive and snarky. Yep, that’s right… snarky. Don’t worry- I ended up cancelling the order and writing a strongly worded complaint to the Cold Stone corporate office. It wasn’t until after I had hit send on the complaint e-mail that Steve called me back… He wanted to “thank me” for calling so that he didn’t “waste a cake.” He then proceeded to remind me, once more, that he had come in early to work on my cake. Are you kidding me??
And then there was “Jane.” Jane works in the returns department at Kohl’s. Listen, I get it… doing returns all day must be a drag. But it’s not my fault you chose to work there!! I walked up to the return desk and very cheerfully and politely explained what I needed to do (return two items, exchange two other items for different sizes, and get a price adjustment on the previously mentioned exchanges). Like a good little customer I even had my receipt all ready to go. It is important to mention that Jane did not say one word to me until approximately 75% of our entire interaction was complete. After everything was complete I started to gather my items to leave. Then Jane broke her silence.
“What about those items?” She points to the items I am placing in my bag.
“Well,” I stammered, “I thought you already took care of the exchange and adjustment.”
“You made me do all that work??” She lets out a sigh of obvious frustration. **
** This is the line that nearly sent me over the edge.
Apparently she misunderstood my earlier explanations and only gave me a price adjustment. I think. I still am not quite sure what she thought I wanted the first time around. Basically what it comes down to is this… Jane didn’t really listen to me the first time. She didn’t ask any clarifying questions and just went straight to work fixing what she thought was the problem. And all that was my fault.
At work we have a little formula for when a guest is feeling mad or like they have been jipped. It goes a little something like this:
Listen.
Reiterate the guest’s words to make sure you have it right.
Apologize.
Fix the problem.
Thank them for letting you solve the problem.
Wouldn’t we all feel well taken care of if every problem was solved in the above fashion??
I will end on a good note… We were provided excellent service this week by Apple. I was smart enough to pay for the Apple Care extended warranty when I purchased my laptop 2.5 years ago. Lately the mouse thingy has been sticking and so Justin made an appointment to take her in to be seen at the Apple doctor. They replaced the whole keyboard/bottom layer and now she is as good as new. Thanks Apple!
