Discuss here situations that cause frustration or anger. As technology users discuss top five situations that cause frustration or perhaps, anger. (see questions posed)
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Discuss a difficult customer situattion as a service provider in the workplace. (Answer questions posed.)
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I have experienced numerous unhappy customers at my current job. One of the more recent situations involved a table of six customers, two of which are regulars at the restraunt. This particular evening, this table's food order took 30 minutes to get from the kitchen to the table. The emotion the customer was feeling was EXTREME Anger. My manager apologized, gave him a $30 gift card and discounted their bill. The customer responded by throwing the gift card at her and telling her that he was not paying 1 penny for his meal and that if she had a problem with that she could call the cops. He was extremly rude to my manager. I could empathize with the customer in that he was hungry and food orders are supposed to be delivered in 10 min and he knew that. I have waited long periods of time before for a food order and could understand his frustration. I was very apologetic to the customer and told him I would get the manager to further assist him. This situation could have been prevented if the kitchen staff was more proficient.
Top five situations that cause me frustration would have to be when your looking for something on a webpage for a company and its poorly done so you cant find anything easily. When you get on the IM with there customer support and by the time they get to you, you have already given up. When you have to look all over the site to find the place to cancel your account. When you get something and it doesnt work. When you buy a piece of hardware only to find out you dont have the right specs to use it.
I have experienced customers being very unhappy at my job. One customer I had couple of days ago, was screaming and yelling uncontrollably about how she hates us(my company) for messing up her life!! I could not say anything, she just hangup the phone! Oh well!
When I was in the military I would have to deal with these new officers that thought they knew everything. Everything I said was wrong even though I was the subject matter expert in the specific field. Well one day I was dealing with one these junior officers and he told me I am doing my job wrong. Well I told him that I get very high praise from my superiors. Then he told me that I need to revamp my database to cater to his needs. I told him that if he has a problem with my database to take it up with department head.
Well during that conversation my department head over heard me talking to this person and he said to put on speaker phone. So when I did my department head said to this junior officer. "I am the one that told Petty Officer Brown to make it that way. You are to look at your specific qualifications and that is it. If you have any questions talk to your chain of command instead calling headquarters and cursing out one of my guys."
From that day on I never heard a peep from the person.
During my time as a customer rep i have experienced a few customers that were dissatisfied with the way things were going. One customer was mad because he wasnt paid yet for the travel that he had taken already and he was wondering what was the problem and why it was taking so long to pay. Well i calmly answered his questions after i found out the problem. The problem wasn't on our behalf it was the customer fault. He was suppose to update his EFT info whenever he change bank accounts and the money was sent to his old bank account so we had to call the bank and DFAS to withdraw the money and correct the mistake.
Working in restuarants for years, you can say you've seen it all. I had tables that were so sweet and they made my job worth while. On the other hand, yesterday I gave a lady a straw, when i walked away to put their group of fives order in, she had dropped the wrapped straw, and shouted for me to get her a new one. I was quite puzzled, and did what she wished. She asked for extra cocktail sauce, which I informed her that the charge for any extra sauces is .60. She thew a fit, and said fine ill eat it plain. Another guest at the table wanted extra ranch, and again I informed them about the extra .60. He then said fine never mind. They were so incredibly rude to me, and ran me all over the place non stop. They left me no tip at all. I was very hurt and insulted. I feel that some guests feel the need to get everything handed to them for free. It bothers me, and I can say I see it almost everyday. Guests just complaining hoping to get a free meal. I guarantee i was the best server they've ever had.
I work at a private montessori school that had kids from ages 2 to 8th grade. I work with the preschoolers, ages 3-5. I have a child who if he doesn't get his way he will throw a fit! This particular child was acting up on a party day so he did not recieve a cupcake for afternoon snack but instead recieved the normal snack for that day. I warned him that if he did not stop he would also lose his bag of candy. Well as I expected he kept acting up, he threw chairs around the room, knocked over shelves, scattered colored pencils everywhere and was hitting, kicking, and biting me. So I inturn, took away his bag of candy. When his mother arrived I explained to her what had happened. She told me that I was not allowed to refuse a child snack or give or take away food as a reward or punishment. I agreed with her and explained that I did not deny him snack, he was given the usual snack and that his candy was a priviledged treat that I had brought in for the kids that he did not earn after the abuse he gave me. She was very upset with me and became very rude. During all of this her child was still trashing my classroom. She then asked if she could have his bag of candy to give to him so he would stop. My manager has now come in to help, and explained that by giving him his candy would not help the issue and that he needed to be disciplined. The mother would not have this, she snatched his candy out of my hand and stormed out. It is very frustrating to deal with parents like this who would rather take the easy way out than to deal with their childs bad behavior.
There was one particular situation where this one couple came in saying that they had bought some product only to get home to discover that it was empty. The woman was really mad and upset and looked as if she wanted to punch somebody's lights out. The man however was very calm about it and didn't seem very upset. I could understand why she was so frustrated because that would be a real hastle for me too, to drive all that way to get something, then drive home, and then open the box to see that it wasn't there, then drive back (especially the way gas prices are). So, I gave them another one for free and made sure that all the contents were in the box, gave their dog a bag of treats for free, and apologized for the inconvenients. The woman however was still really mad, but luckily her husband was there to calm her down and explain to her that it was not the employees falt that someone had come in earlier and stolen the contents of the box. I don't know if I could have done anything differently. I guess you can never satisfy some people.
Being a former business owner of a local pizza franchise, I of course encountered a lot of different complaints.
Nothing really specific comes to mind, just your typical complaints when trying to order a pizza.
The biggest thing for me and what I held my employees accountable for was to acknowledge the complaint, and always handle it in the most respectful manner.
Michael Fillalan-
Probably the ultimate, top anger generating problem with customer service is that you are being given help by someone who knows only the basics of the information. Usually when you want help, you want help by someone who knows what they are talking about. There are too many times when I call cox for some help, and I tell them specifically what my problem is, and I know the solution can only be done on their end, and yet they continually insist on following the script of problem solving with the usual "Try turning the modem off for 5 seconds" solution.
I'm not sure if they get paid extra for staying on the phone more, or if they are bored, but they seem to like wasting time by not listening to me.
The top situations that would cause me the most anger would be when dealing with people who don't know what they should know. When you are forced to deal with people that don't put forth effort into their job. When you can't get the help you need or the question you need answering doesn't get answered and you just waste your time. When the service provider says their product works one way and it actually works another way. When you have to deal with people who hate their job.
In my career I deal with alot of unhappy and irate customers. I currently collect on delinquent auto loans. My job consist of manny duties, such as skiptracing, negotiations, customer service, etc. One customer that comes to mind, was a new customer that just purchsed a new vehicle and had to have a consigner for approval. Well the customer mailed her 1st payment via money order and we never received it. So she began receiving collection calls and so did the cosigner. The customer called in irate about the phone calls, stating that the cosigner called her and cursed her out. The customer then began to advise me that she mailed payment over 2 weeks ago, I advised her payment not received and gave her other payment options. She then requested that we not communicate with cosigner regarding loan, stated that she drives and pays for vehicle. I advised customer that we will attempt to contact her first to resolve, but if we cant reach her then we will contact cosigner. I advised her that we have to notify him of acct status because it affects his credit as well as hers. Customer then began to go on and on about lost money order. I politely advised her how to go about tracing the money order and advised her of how long the process may take. I also offered her a few options that would help her get the account back on track that would not require a fee. Eventually I was able to calm her down and she made her payment at a money gram location & sent in the required information to get her account back on track. Overall, I went over and beyond my job duties, the only downfall was she called me everyday for the next two weeks asking the most ridiculous questions. One time she called while I was on lunch break and told my co-workers that it was an emergency. My co-worker called me on my cell and asked me if I knew the person and I advised her it was one of my customers. This customer was very unstable and extreme. I hope she never calls in again and if she does, I already advised my co-workers to tell her I'm not in & transfer her to a supervisor. CRAZY, DERANGED
When I was working in a recycling center on Hickam AFB Hawaii, one customer was being very rude to me and my co-worker I processed her cans, bottles and glass while she was complaining. My co-worker started saying that she can not talk that way to us and begin to be rude back. Then our "Boss" (I use the term loosely) came by because she had called his bosses boss and complained and they came down to him he asked us both to call her back and apologize to the customer because he does not want to look bad in front of a customer he would never back up his employees at all. My coworker never apologized to her and he quit 2 weeks later.
The other day I experienced the most outrageous customer. I have seen people upset but still somewhat reasonable. I was the next customer in line and the customer was upset he wasn't being helped. The Customer Service rep at the counter was polite and told him since she can't not help him, she will call the manager. Once the manager arrived this customer demanded he recieve a complaint sheet or satisfaction survey. The Manager did not have it available. So he gave him a blank sheet of paper with the corporate address. The man responded to this by throwing the paper at him and still demanded it back. The manager maintained his cool. He asked the customer to leave. The man became even more irrate and the manager called the police. He was arrested. I have never seen such a situation that reached the level of a customer being arrested. I was amazed out how the manager and the represenitive handled themselves.
The other day I experienced the most outrageous customer. I have seen people upset but still somewhat reasonable. I was the next customer in line and the customer was upset he wasn't being helped. The Customer Service rep at the counter was polite and told him since she can't not help him, she will call the manager. Once the manager arrived this customer demanded he recieve a complaint sheet or satisfaction survey. The Manager did not have it available. So he gave him a blank sheet of paper with the corporate address. The man responded to this by throwing the paper at him and still demanded it back. The manager maintained his cool. He asked the customer to leave. The man became even more irrate and the manager called the police. He was arrested. I have never seen such a situation that reached the level of a customer being arrested. I was amazed out how the manager and the represenitive handled themselves.
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