Working in customer service teaches you a lot - both about yourself and about humans in general. Here are a few things I’ve learned through three years of working customer service-focused jobs:
Some customers will restore your faith in humanity.
They’re generous and thoughtful and just flat-out incredible. If everyone could just be like these people, the world would be such a beautiful place.
Some people are just assholes.
No matter how friendly and helpful you are, they’re going to be an ass. At first, it’s tough, but after a while, you learn to accept it and silently stare at the wedding band on their finger in wonder of the fact that they managed to convince someone to actually say, “I do,” to them.
There are creeps.
They will hit on you. You will feel uncomfortable and awkward.
Making a customer’s days usually ends up making your own day.
When you send someone away with a huge smile, it’s impossible not to have a smile on your own face
You will meet people that cause you to question how they’ve survived so long without common sense or a sufficient amount of functional brain cells.
It’s almost never personal.
When someone yells at you or makes an underhanded comment, it’s usually because they’re angry or frustrated with someone/thing else. They’re just taking it out on you because they can.
Sometimes, people are ridiculously dramatic in an attempt to get their way.
If they try to cut in line and are informed that another customer was first, they’ll put things back and say they don’t have time to wait, so they just won’t buy anything at all (even though there are only two people ahead of them and the line is moving quickly). If they don’t want to pay a particular price, they’ll continuously say things like, “This is too much,” or “I was not expecting to pay so much,” or “This price is ridiculous,” or “I’m never shopping here again.” Funny enough, they still end up making the purchase and coming back again for more.
There are people who love to mess with you.
In my experience, they’re usually funny older men, and they get a kick out of leaving you to awkwardly decipher whether or not you should take what they’re saying seriously.
Dealing with people can be exhausting.
There are days when pasting on a friendly smile and wishing everyone a good day takes a lot more out of you than you’d expect. There are days when every single person you encounter just grinds your gears, no matter what they do. There are days when you immediately crawl into bed after work because you’re just so sick of people.
You either love people or you hate people.
I don’t think there’s much of an in-between. You either learn that you love people through your customer service, or you learn that you hate them. Fortunately, I learned that I love people. Not every customer service employee is so lucky.
