If you’ve ever purchased a good or service, or had any kind of monetary transaction, odds are that you dealt with a customer service representative. Customer service is a part of our everyday lives whether we realize it or not.
Having worked with customers/clients directly for the past 5+ years in various fields, I can tell you that there is nothing more laborious than dealing with other human beings.
You know the saying “you can’t always get what you want”? Well, that’s my outlook on being in customer service. It is a thankless job that often goes underpaid and over stressed. Of course, there are always going to be customers who are traditionally pain in the asses, but I can safely say that as a whole, society has become more entitled, which has made it more difficult being in customer service.
Customer service jobs are in no ways luxurious at all. It doesn’t matter if you’re a VIP Host for celebrities or working at the happiest place on Earth, Disney World. There will always be human beings who will make your job harder than it needs to be. People expect if they’re paying for something, they receive top quality service. While we will gladly do it, the expectation is that you not act like a complete asshole throughout the experience.
As the years have come and past and I’ve gotten a bit older and wiser, I’ve also learned that if you want to get anywhere with a customer service representative, sometimes you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. Yelling or getting aggressive with your customer service agent won’t make them work harder or give you what you want. If you are polite, use soft and agreeable language and have patience, odds are you’ll get a lot further.
Being in customer service is a double edged sword because human nature says that when someone is rude or gets fresh with you, you want to clap back at them or get even. However, that only works on Twitter and with people in real life that aren’t doing business with you. The goal is to get even in the nicest way possible.
How many of you have “customer service” voices? An obnoxiously cheery personality that would make anyone cringe but suffer through it to get what they wanted. There was a movie last year called “Sorry To Bother You” and essentially it was a look at how people are forced to take on personas in the customer service industry in order to succeed. It’s painful and demoralizing, but it also gets us through our day. We do our best not to hang up on you or read you for filth for your rude tone and ignorance. Our job is to provide a customer service, but it doesn’t mean the service has to be high quality.
I will say this however, I do not appreciate companies that outsource their customer service call centers to foreign countries like India or the Philippines where the language barrier is extreme and the representatives are reading out of a book with predetermined prompts and statements. That is not customer service. That is the same thing as going on Google and getting advice from a message board.
With that being said, we need to be thankful for all those who do work in the customer service industry, as they are the real unsung heroes. They take your stupid questions (yes, there are such things as stupid questions), ridiculous requests, and piss poor attitudes and attempt to make lemonade out of your rotten lemons. I am grateful for my experiences working directly with people, if only for the outlandish stories that I can share or the life lessons I’ve learned. I ask you in 2019 to be better, think before you speak, and remember that customer service representatives are people too!
Featured Image via WeHeartIt
Featured image via Camille Chen on Unsplash
