Bad Customer Service

Like anyone who has worked in retail or food service I've encountered rude and demanding customers and rude and incompetent workers as a customer. Having worked in retail for so long I know what good customer service looks like. I'm not going to entertain any "both sides" comments - I know that there are both sides, but today I'm talking about the customer experience. 

At one time I taught introductory customer service classes for the company that I used to work for. I explicitly debunked the old "the customer is always right" saying. The customer is not always right. With the exception of those people who come in looking for trouble, or are just entitled jerks, most customers just want what from a company, be it restaurant, or retail store, or any kind of service company, is just what the company advertises that it is providing. In addition, as the ultimate provider of the company's revenue, to be treated with a minimum of respect. Even angry customers are usually angry for a reason and can be made not angry by reasonably addressing what they're angry about. 

This morning I stormed out of a local diner, angry at escalating rudeness, confusing my family members who were with me. As a customer, and in general just as a human being, there is just so much crap that I'm willing to tolerate. My wife and I arrived at the diner where we would be meeting other family members. There were many open tables, although both of the six seaters were taken. I inquired about pushing a couple of tables together and was told, after the hostess checked with an unseen person in the back area, that they couldn't do that. I was later told that doing so would be a fire hazard - an explanation about which I was skeptical, but I figured one of the two six seaters would be open soon enough, so I was content to wait. This was the first miss on the customer service scorecard, albeit a minor one. Our request to push a few tables together was not unreasonable and could have been accommodated. They just didn't want to. 

Soon after, we found out our group might be eight, and not six. Susie attempted to relay this information to the hostess, who shrugged off her additional information. We thought, rightly so, that this information was important, since they weren't going to push tables together, and there were no tables with more than six chairs. (Customer Service violation number two: ignoring the customer) As the additional members of our troupe arrived, a six seater opened up and we were led to it by a different employee. When I asked her how our eight people (it turned out actually to be seven) she said we would have to wait and reiterated the "rule" about not pushing tables together. This new employee, who appeared to be in her early twenties, clearly was uninterested in our dilemma, punctuating her lack of assistance with eye-rolling, shoulder shrugging and rudely asking "What do you want me to do?". There's transgression number three - acting like your customer is nothing but a nuisance. I still hadn't lost it. I still wanted to eat there, so I suggested that we take two booths that were near the door, to which she responded that she didn't care what we did. Then I announced that I was eating there and started to leave. 

The original hostess attempted (a day late and a dollar short) to salvage the situation, telling us we could wait even longer for a table "back there" (wherever that was). If "back there" was an option, why were we not offered it initially? To make matters worse, the younger employee began undercutting her older co-worker's peacemaking overture by repeatedly stating "they don't want to eat here". 

But the story keeps getting better. Plan B was to drive down the road to a fast food joint. We ordered our food at a kiosk, which came out fairly quickly. Most of it anyway. A few items, including one complete meal for one of the kids, was not there, but we were assured that "they were making it" and would be out soon. (One of these items were cookies, which I'm reasonably sure they didn't make there). After most of our first round of food was consumed, one of us went up to the counter to inquire about the rest of our order. Again, assured that "they were making it". This clerk was encouraged to go check in the back to see what was taking it so long. Nope, it wasn't still being made, it had been bagged up incorrectly and given to another customer! Yes, mistakes happen, but before you give a customer a stock answer, confirm that what you're saying is in fact the correct answer. No rudeness, just incompetence and probably lack of training. 

Despite it all, it was still a pleasant outing with out of town family. 
 

Social Media Chaos

Social media. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Okay, you can live without it, but its various incarnations have become quite intertwined in our lives. Invitations to all but the most formal of events are sent out on Facebook, Twitter has become the communication medium of government officials, bands use various platforms to promote their shows...it goes on and on. 

I have become over the years a regular user of social media. I post my photos on various sites, I use Facebook as a soapbox for my political rants and Twitter has become my go-to source for information - or least links to the information. Occasionally I discover an old friend that I had lost track of, and probably never would have reconnected with if it hadn't been for the internet. This, however, is a double-edged sword.  

During my time in The Way I met many people who I had not stayed in touch with over the years. Some had left The Way before I did and I, following Way dictates, cut ties with them; others did the same to me when I left The Way. One couple that I rediscovered on Facebook were Mike and Rosemarie. Mike was the best man at my first wedding and was my roommate for about six months before then. Rosemarie was part of the group of four that I was a part of on Way assignment in 1980, and was also my roommate just before I got married. We had stopped talking when my first wife and I had temporarily left The Way in 1983. When we became active again in The Way in 1990 we found that Mike and Rosemarie had joined one of the Way offshoots. By the early 2000's I was out of The Way and so were they. I reached out to them on Facebook, but was quickly told to not have contact with them. Mike noticed a pentacle that I was wearing in my profile picture; they decided that they couldn't be in contact with someone who had rejected Jesus. Mike was also very excited about "studying" the Nephilim in the Old Testament...the kind of thing that I can only describe as the religious version of a conspiracy theory. 

Another lesson that I learned on social media is that most people with strong opinions don't want those opinions questioned or challenged. I've always been the kind of person who enjoyed a good discussion, a lively debate, even in the so-called taboo areas of religion and politics. If you want to disagree with me, do it politely, state your case logically and we can still be pals. Yet there is a subset of internet denizens who don't want their own opinions questioned, but are free with their critiques of other people's opinions. Some years ago an in-law regularly took me to task for some of what I posted on Facebook. I promised to take this person's point of view into consideration, but when the tables were turned there was an unwillingness to reciprocate. A family feud, with one of my children refusing to speak to me, continues to this day, even though the in-law in question is no longer an in-law due to divorce. 

Although I maintain a policy of inviting civil debate, I have noticed a string of former Facebook "friends" who have disappeared. I can only assume that my strong political posts have run them off. Others, who I know disagree with me, stick with me. Despite being easy going as regards to disagreements I have had to "unfriend" and block several people over the years. Fortunately not too many. The first was another in-law. During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2021 repeatedly made rude comments about the protests. Despite several attempts to get him to phrase his comments in a more civil manner, he persisted and had to be gotten rid of. There was another one just this previous year. One of my best friends from high school, part of a group of guys who I spend virtually all my free time with sent me a friend request. I was thrilled to hear from him. Most of my old teenage years buddies aren't on Facebook and this connection with the past was most welcome. It didn't last long. A retired cop, he quickly revealed himself as a Trumpist and regularly made what I call "drive by postings" - short snarky comments on my posts with no follow up or explanation, even when asked to elaborate on his statements. He got blocked after accusing me of being a sheep because I held the views that I did. 

On average through, I find social media to be a positive thing. Sure, there are times when I'm sitting right next to another person and we're both on our phones, scrolling along. But I can honestly say that those are times when I would have been reading a book, or the newspaper, or watching television anyway. Our wedding business does all of its advertising on social media;  my photography gets a lot of recognition (and occasional paying gigs) because of social media; I participated for years in an online forum for former members of my old cult.  Through social media I have been able to stay in touch with people that I have met at concerts. I can put up with the irritations - the benefits (for me) outweigh them.