Practicing What I Preach

Working with the public is just plain interesting. Almost everyone who calls or comes into the store is pleasant and polite and appreciate of the fact that this chain prides itself on providing customer service. Even so, every once and a while a customer is just plain angry and unhappy with us. Sometimes the bookseller is at fault and other times the customer just is impossible to please.

Today was the first time one of those customers was angry with me. She called and ask me to check and see if the book that she had requested be shipped from another store had come in. I found one possibility but since it did not have a name on it, I read the title of the book to the customer and asked her if it was hers. She got huffy and hung up on me.

Hanging up wasn't enough, she called back three times to complain. The first two times she spoke to a co-worker the third time she asked for me by name and spent 5 minutes telling me how unprofessional of me it was to read the title of a book that belonged to someone else, to her. I tried to explain that I was trying to see if it was her order, and she told me that was not true. I tried to explain what I had done, she wasn't interested in hearing anything I had to say. I asked if I could get the manager for her, she was uninterested in talking to him. She just wanted to bitch and have me listen. I listened, I apologized, I even (very politely) thanked her for telling me how unprofessional I was. And after she finally hung up I whined about her to all my co-workers (away from customers).

I know part of dealing with the public is dealing with idiots, but I don't like it.

When it happened to other booksellers I would listen and tell them some customers were just pains in the butt and that if you had been polite and responsive, you should just chalk it up to "Life is interesting".


But I will say when it happens to me, it is no fun.