In the thread about talking your way into first class, I came by this statement, made by tygre:
I think most of the people posting to the thread would agree with this statement. At first, I did too, but the more I think about, I don’t know that I, or we, should.
I especially don’t like the line, “It’s not their fault if the flight is overbooked or delayed…” Well, it may not be their fault, but it certainly is their job to deal with the customers and make sure they are satisfied.
I think we all to often let companies get away with shoddy service because we don’t want to be “rude” or in any way say or do something that may upset the agent, salesperson, or other frontline employee. Well, that’s why they’re there. That’s what they were hired for - customer service. We should expect good service and let it be known we the service isn’t good.
I’m not condoning outright abrasiveness, but to back off on making a complaint simply because it’s “not their fault” does not seem to me to be the way to get service to improve.
(P.S. A note to tygre - this is not aimed at you in anyway. Your post just summed up what many others seemed to be saying better than others.)
I spent six months fighting the good fight in the trenches doing phone- and email-based customer support for a rather major e-commerce company before moving onto the coding side of the company. As you can tell, I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
I can attest to the fact that a lot of people refuse to let a company get away with shoddy service because of a desire to avoid rocking the boat. Not a day went by when I wasn’t the subject of an abusive customer. We had a policy in force that allowed us to hang up on a profane or obscene customer after one warning, but I never had a chance to do that (tempting as it was!) as most people stopped swearing after hearing that. Here’s my take on the subject:
Complaining is sometimes the only way to effect change in a system. However, the person you’re complaining at might not necessarily be able to make the changes. If you’ve been treated poorly, let them know. Not just the person who screwed you over, but the supervisor or manager on duty, and follow that up with a letter (yup, an actual physical one-- these tend to be taken more seriously than an all-caps email with a dozen exclamation points.) But keep your head about you, and state your case clearly.
Screaming may make you feel better, but it won’t make the employee any more eager to help you. If the mistake is the employee’s fault, let them know that, and then let them fix it. Never hesitate to complain (or ‘suggest’, if you prefer) but do it in a polite and respectful manner.
And on a slight hijack, when you call someplace for assistance and hear “Thanks for calling X, my name is Joe, how can I help you?”, or are being helped at a ticket counter at the airport, thank the employee by name. You’d be surprised at how far it goes. (And smile at us once in a while…)
For either party, the thing to remember is to stay reasonable. This can be difficult to remember in the heat of the moment, but it can definitely help your cause.