Thursday, February 15, 2007

Dealing with customers

Am I complaining? Yes. But hopefully not in a boring manner. It's just that if you ask me to give something to someone else I'd like you to give me the name.

A guest asks me to give something to his supervisor. I asked for the name. He said 'He's in room..." And I said, "I need to do this by name." He said, "He's with this company." And I said, "Yes I realize that and so are you, but I need the name." He said, "He's F... but I don't know the last name, but it's money so I need you to give it to him." And I sighed.

Is it really to much for me to ask that you give me the name of the person rather than just telling me the room number, the company or that he's your boss?

Evidently so.

And I'm not trying to make trouble, but I've had a number of people with this company change rooms on me. I'm not trying to make problems, but we try to, for security and privacy, direct things to people by name rather than room number. I'm not trying to be difficult, but I ask the questions that I need to do my job and if you answer a different question I can't help you."

And frankly I've experienced bad customer service on the other side. I'm less tolerant of it than I used to be. Things I used to let go just bother me, since I've been on the side of giving good customer service and I know that it's not difficult to greet the customer as they come in. It's not hard to ask, "How can I help?" Telling the person on the phone that you've got so many customers ahead and asking whether they want to wait is simple.

But when I'm on the other side, I know the information I need to start looking for your lost item, or your receipt or whatever. If you don't answer the question I have, then please don't be surprised when it takes me longer to find what you need. The infromation you think I need first, may not be so. Please just answer the question that I asked - not the question you think I should have asked.

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