Recently on Facebook one of my old friends from high school
posted about a bad experience she had in a coffee shop. In the responses she got from her friends were
of course supportive of her, which is great.
Then I noticed her friends other comments about the barista. Those were not great. They indicated that the barista was an idiot,
one said she hoped the barista choked and meant it only as a half joke,
indicating that flipping out would have been perfectly okay, dumping the drink on the barista’s head and choke
slamming her. Not one said that
mistakes and misunderstandings happen.
They just decided to talk shit
and thought they were cute. It’s not
cute, it’s not funny. It is ignorant and
immature and a clear sign that there is
a lot wrong people. What’s worse is that
many people do not understand why I feel that way.
Granted my friend gave her side of the story and that is the
only side we heard. While the Barista
could have handled it differently, I don’t understand how comments like the
previously stated are okay or even constructive. Especially when they are half meant.
Some might ask why this bothers me so much. Simple.
I was a barista while I worked at Borders and I still work in retail. I have
had good customers and bad…..really bad customers. Those that worked with me at 575 know who I
am talking about. A customer who ended up cornering my supervisor in her
car and giving threats about how she was going to punch me in my face the next
time she saw me behind the counter, how her sister was not afraid of getting
arrested and she was going to come and beat me up. She had even called to complain about me
when I was out of the state. Once she
issued threats we called the police and she cursed the cop out.
Why did this happen?
Because I wouldn’t give her large drinks with extra shots and only charge
her for a medium. I questioned her hand
written coupons that said free drink and nothing else.
Even where I am now I had a customer say that it was good
that I didn’t have a name tag on or else she would call and have me fired…I told
her my name. Why was she mad? My computer wouldn’t accept an expired
coupons and smaller reasons that I had nothing to do with.
Now I am not saying that employees are always angels. Sometimes they do have bad attitudes or give bad service. They are people too. Yet, People always want to blame the employees, even the good ones. They always want to bitch about retail workers and servers
but many of those people fail to realize their own behavior nowadays. They love to go to the ‘Customer is always
right’ phrase that has plagued the business world. This phrase no longer applies in this day and
age. If you go online today you will
find that there are many articles and websites about why the customer is not
always right for various reasons. Such
as: Customers lie! Customers berate and
belittle to make themselves feel better, don’t know what they want, what they
expect is not reasonable or rational.
My suggestion for having more positive experiences after
something has gone wrong is first and foremost:
Stop, take a deep breath and think.
Was it really the employees fault or were you not paying attention? It might even be a combination of both. Also, just like customers that remember their bad
experiences, employees remember bad customers and how things are handled will
be remembered the next time you enter that establishment.
Remember: remember
that the employees are people as well.
You have bad days, the employees have bad days too. Also…the employee deals with more customers
in a day than customers deal with employees.
What you might think is just a small one time thing you did, could have
happened many more times than what you think.
Pay attention: If the
employee is honestly trying to help resolve the matter, don’t ask for something
free (it makes you look bad), don’t ask for things that are not rational
especially if it is against the store’s policy. Policy is there for a reason and in many
cases employees can be fired for breaking policy even to help an irate customer.
Do not go off! It
makes you look like an idiot! Even other
customers will think you are crazy.
When I go to other retail stores or coffee/tea shops…I try
to treat them as I would like to be treated.
There have been times I had gotten the wrong drink or waited a long
time. But I have been behind the counter
so I can understand what they might have going on and when I explain it they
appreciate my taking the effort.
I have often been told that a little understanding goes a
long way. Now that is always true. Too bad that is not a phrase people remember.
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