Look, I know there are like a million of these “customer service secret” articles lying around. But I did notice that most of those sorts of articles are from specific job perspectives — like waitstaff or more hands on positions — and so I thought I might have a little something to add, since I work the world’s weirdest desk job.
I’m not going to specifically say what it is, but just know that it involves both a customer service aspect and crazy, crazy hours. This morning I worked from 3-6 am, which is a short yet deeply painful shift to have. There’s something about getting up — or staying up till, in my case — 2:30 and going to bed at 6:30 that just makes you really regret your life choices and irreparably screws up your circadian rhythm.
But that’s a separate issue — and maybe a separate article. What’s important here is that there are a lot of times where I’m forced to work for/with/help out people who are....unbearable. So I figured I’d let y’all know a few things about customer service positions. For my particular job, I usually end up dealing with people with a variety of age ranges and lifestyles, and they all usually have some problem that desperately — or at least, moderately — needs fixing. And sometimes it can be something that’s pretty serious and so the person might give me a little extra attitude — that I get.
But it’s the people who are just out-of-nowhere nasty, who are deliberately unkind that really piss me off. Like, what’s the point? It doesn’t get you anything quicker or better than normal, and all it does it make me — and the other staff — pretty irritated. This is especially true for issues we have no control over — getting pissed at staff over policy issues or things they don’t have any say in is literally the definition of counter-productivity.
The other two unbearable parts of customer service are: a) when the customer/person you’re helping lies about what happened or what they need, and b) when they don’t give you any information that might help solve the problem.
I honestly couldn’t tell you which pisses me off more, a or b. A is annoying because it’s highly highly HIGHLY unnecessary and doesn’t do anything but waste time. B is annoying because I can’t...do...anything. If you ask me for something but don’t tell me what you need/who you are/where are you are, then it’s actually impossible for me to assist you. And I get it; some people get flustered asking for help or need a minute to articulate their needs — this isn’t about y’all — which is fine. I’m talking about the people who legitimately expect me to mind-read the rest of the info and go from there — which is again, impossible and also super annoying.
The other annoying thing about dealing with rude people at these sorts of jobs is the entitlement. I guarantee that any person working in customer service has had to deal with a lot of other people with the same sort of problems who need something just as badly as everyone else — and so we can’t favor anyone, we just have to do our jobs efficiently. Dealing with other people is a job itself, in my opinion, and we also get the lovely task of dealing with them when they’re at their worst.
I could go on for ages about this — I have a lot of work-related feelings — and so I’ll stop here.
All I’m saying is: be kind to people in service positions. I mean, naturally, you should be kind to everyone, especially people providing you with a service. But go out of your way to be a little nicer to people who work difficult or busy jobs.
I promise you we’ll appreciate it.
