Customer service jobs: it's not in the contract to pretend to give a s*^t about your life.

I worked frontline customer service for ages. Often, people go pretty overboard with their expectations regarding how much you, as a customer service person, should care about the mundane facts about their lives. Not their food, or clothes, or purchase, or perfume, but their actual life.

I was reminded of this today as I purchased gas, and the woman in front of me spoke to the cashier for a full five minutes about the hard time she was having moving her belongings from another province to this one. When she realized the girl behind the cash was glazing over she said something along the lines of, "You could pretend like you care about your customers you know. I won't be back."

Now, I understand that some people are lonely, or enjoy venting. I love venting, and I do it here sometimes...where anyone has the free choice to read or not read, and can spend no more time on it than they feel like; but, I cannot imagine venting about my life to a minimum wage earning total stranger.
What more was the girl expected to do? Should she take it upon herself to give this woman a personal counselling session?

I feel the same should go for the well meaning customer who enjoys telling the same joke over and over to every cashier or customer service person they meet. Customer service people have heard them ALL before. No one can be expected to laugh about things that aren't funny, but it's shocking how many customers are truly upset by not receiving the response they believe they deserve.

Why do consumers have these unrealistic expectations of the people who provide you with service? Have they done their actual job? Have they been generally friendly, even when being impersonal? Have they provided you with the said service? Great. Tip or don't tip, wish someone a good day, enjoy your new purchase.

It is not a customer service persons job to interact with a consumer on a very personal level. If you need therapy, go to therapy. If you tell horrible jokes, get better ones. We're all cogs in the machine. There's no reason to pretend anymore.

Also, I'd just like to add, that I spoke with a person over the phone today, and while giving me a model number sounded it out as this : (Deep Southern Accent) "V as in Victor, B as in Boy, U as in Europe."

a reply to: Atsbhct

I worked retail in various levels for two decades.

When you reach this point, it's time to move on to something else.

Just sayin'. You've burnt out.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

Lol, I haven't worked retail for years and years. I just felt bad for the girl behind the counter today.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I always hate any form of customer service jobs. I feel for people that do it.
This pic sums my feelings on it up quite well.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Oh hey, I hear ya.

I'm retired from that line of work myself these days, but I'm a freelance "retail service person therapy outlet".

Whenever I get my coffee at the bookstore my baristas and booksellers always unload on me.

LOL!

a reply to: Skid Mark

Hahahahahahaha.

I've worked retail, including some Christmas seasons which were downright zany. So I appreciate the issue. I think there's a fine line, though. Sometimes people are just trying to be nice to retail workers. Isn't being pleasant appreciated? Well, no, it isn't if the retail worker hates you in principle. And sometimes people do go overboard with their stories.

And sometimes, that retail worker can be the ONLY PERSON that customer has talked to all week. Be careful about hating customers so readily.

a reply to: schuyler

But I don't have to be careful about hating them, because I didn't mention the word hate.

I agree, no one wants to hear a life story when doing a business transaction.

But, moving from Iowa to Florida was an eye opener. Simple fast food or gas station attendants are mostly horrible and unprofessional. Not the minority in any way.

Continued conversations for a few minutes between workers, ignoring customers. Taking money then looking at the floor, handing you your food, then staring at you.

It makes you wanna smack them. They act like little entitled punks. If I owned a service type business I would fire every one of them and hire employees whom parents taught them common respect and that they should show gratitude for spending their hard earned money in the establishment by showing gratitude by being polite.

You know what, they have self service counters for people who don't like human interaction. Is that what we should do, have only robots work? So then how do we interact with one another? I don't know about you, but I get angrier and angrier the more MACHINES I talk to because machines don't have a beating heart and cannot empathize. Besides, if five minutes are lost simply giving human contact to another, what is wrong with that? I called customer service and was mad at the machine, but when I got a human being on the line, even though I was upset, I just had to THANK HER FOR BEING A HUMAN BEING.

We have all these jobs of telemarketers trying to sell things, many of them working on commission only, a lot of them 'trained' by forced 'welfare to work' programs that made them leave their homes and be unable to take care of their own small children, but instead leave them in the hands of daycare providers, when what we could be doing instead is letting them raise their own kids to be decent human beings. Who cares if they are 'productive' or not, who cars if they make money for the machine or not..just raise them to be decent people.

Instead, money is more important, as is telling people who don't have enough of it how to raise their children.

I used to work as a waitress and worked in the fast food industry and have done retail work. I think the only 'problem' with those industries is that the people working in them are treated like crap by the the ones making the most money off of them.

a reply to: Mandroid7

It definitely goes both ways. Customer service people should be friendly and professional. Always.

a reply to: TwoRavens

A person behind a counter rarely wants to hear someone's life story. It might feel good to tell them it, but more often than not, these people go into robot mode as soon as a customer talks for more than a minute. It's great to have a really meaningful interaction with a customer, but it's not the norm in day to day service jobs.

If I ever open a retail store, I'm gonna hire a hot chick to stand behind the register after reading this thread.

Hot chicks listening to Forever Alone dude ... or you're fired!! LOL

I am in such a Good mood today!!

if someone works in customer service, then I expect if I'm paying for a service, a certain degree of professionalism and friendliness.

Having said that, I wouldn't expect an individual in customer service to go above and beyond the service in question, as in dealing with the customers life problems.

In that instance, you as the customer, would have to remember that, and also the fact that, you are dealing with people who also may have their own problems and lives to deal with.

a reply to: Atsbhct

its time for a nice vacation...

a reply to: OpinionatedB

From what? Buying gas?

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: schuyler

But I don't have to be careful about hating them, because I didn't mention the word hate.

Don't be pedantic. You know damn well the attitude I'm talking about. Whether you call it "hate" or "disdain" or "giving a ####" hardly matters.

a reply to: schuyler

If it's my prerogative to be annoyed by, not hate, or disdain, etc, people who become far too personal with customer service representatives, then I surely can.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I think it's getting harder and harder for a lot of people to make connections. I've worked retail and I met a lot of nice people that way just by being open and friendly. Taught me a lot about interacting with different people. It wasn't just that I'd make good money being nice, it was genuinely a good feeling once I actually did it.

I think more and more that industry is moving towards upselling, short interactions, and efficiency. Kind of like the way we don't know our neighbors any more and looking at someone in the street is horrifying. Lonely customers can be irritating but being a drone is five thousand times worse.

a reply to: Atsbhct

From people... you are getting frustrated..

yes actually, it IS in the contract to care about people..to listen to anything they might like to say if at all possible... if you cannot bring yourself to be kind to everyone, no matter what, then you don't need to work with people...

I have spent most of my life dealing with the public in one form or another.. and while some customers will be overly long winded, you can gracefully bow out when it becomes overly long, without ever once being rude or making the customer feel as if you don't care about them..

You appear frustrated with people in general... take a break, whatever that may be.. a nice vacation.. people are a fact of life.. whether you are serving them, or simply shopping in the same store.. and yes, many people are lonely..