I'm expected to give poor customer service

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As I may have mentioned, I’m currently working at a corporate travel agency. One of my responsibilities, the one I was hired for, is to take request from people who need copies of their tickets and itineraries so they can submit them with their expense reports. I’ve been doing this for a few months, and I have it down to a fine science, so that if someone gives just the minimum info, I can research the ticket, make a copy and fax it all in five minutes. I’ve heard a few twitterings from my coworkers and superiors to the effect that I don’t have to get on these requests. Until today, I didn’t pay much mind, reasoning that I wanted to be efficient, and to give better customer service than I often get from others. But today I was flat out told to let requests age before honoring them. I thought it might be that they didn’t want me taking time away from other tasks, but their reasoning was that they didn’t want people to get used to getting prompt responses, because then they’d expect too much.

WTF? This is one of the easiest tasks I’ve ever had to perform. I get back to people right away, sometimes literally when I have nothing else to do, because it’s no trouble (except when dopes ask me to send a fax and don’t give their number). What principle is at work here?

2

While it may seem logical to you, I can also see the other side. Once you start doing a job it becomes your job and maybe now you have the time but they maybe thinking ahead and do not want that job to become the responsibility of the department.

Your doing 3 requests as a favor might mean the obligation to do 300 later on. Sometimes the boss sees things you don’t see. That’s why he’s the boss.

3

First of all, sailor, allow me to preface this response by saying that I respect you. Your posts are generally accurate and helpful.

However, your reply here leaves me with the unsettling image of you as the pointy headed boss from Dilbert.

Be less efficient now in case you have to be less efficient later? Sounds like an ideal philosophy for cube dwellers everywhere… :rolleyes:

4

Yes but Sailor, Rilchiam stated that taking the requests is part of his job. It isn’t a favor…The only reason I can see from his post for “sitting” on the requests is to make the service staff’s job easier at the expense of good customer service. I wonder what the higher ups at his company would think of this “policy”.

5

They’re asking you to slow down so as not to make the others look bad. Probably a bunch of do-nothing malcontents.

Quote>>>>>But today I was flat out told to let requests age before honoring them<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Is this a policy of your shop? Doubtful. If this is an actual, official request, perhaps you should request to get it in writing. That should shut 'em up. Don’t slow down, make THEM keep up with you.

6

Get that on tape next time. Then you can either A: blackmail, or B: sell it to the media for a nice Story of the Week.

Well, okay, B wouldn’t be that big a deal, since everyone knows Customer Services are lazy SOBs everywhere (with certain exceptions, of course).

7

Sailor, you posted late at night, so I’ll give you a break.

I agree with everyone else. Ask them to put it in writing. if it’s your job, then by all means humiliate the hell out of them. Make them look silly as hell.

8

I think it would help if people actually expected to pay more for good customer service. Many customers expect top of the line service, but want to pay the same as at the Wal-Mart. It doesn’t work that way. People who are excellent in customer service generally leave the business quickly because the pay in most such jobs is very low.

Rilchiam,
If I were your boss I’d immediately give you a fat raise to keep you on at the business, and show others that extra-hard work pays off. If we were ever to get lots more like you, I’d raise everyone’s salary and charge more for our service.

I think the number of people who would pay a good bit more for superior customer service is growing. Find a job where people appreciate and pay for it.

9

Sailor and particle: I’m female.

Yes, it is my job to fill these requests; as I mentioned, it’s why I was originally hired. But I’m a temp, hoping to be hired on permanently, so I’m not in a position to take a stand on this.

Actually, I think this technically isn’t customer service, since the people asking for copies are other employees trying to complete their expense accounts. That doesn’t make it any less important, in my eyes, but I’m just going to assume there’s something I don’t know. Sigh. I really thrived on all the people e-mailing back and saying “Thank you tons for your quick response”.

10

Who knows. It may be that the rest of the office is legitimately bogged down and overburdened, and your responsiveness is making them look even worse than they already appear in the eyes of the clients they serve.

You’re a temp, so you’ve probably been given a very light workload. You’re right to want to do your job as quickly and efficiently as possible, but that doesn’t mean that all the other employees have it as easy as you. I agree with the other posters that it’s a bad policy to ask a worker to operate more slowly, but I can see an occasional rare case where one worker with a light load operating superfast might make the environment that much more unendurable for the rest of the workers slogging away at more difficult tasks.

Like you said, you’re a temp and it’s not your call in any case. Tell your clients that it will take a day to get the info to them, and then do the work and hold it for a day before sending it out. In the meantime, since you’re hoping to pick up a permanent position there, try asking around for additional work in order to lighten the load of the other workers. That will go much further toward making you indispensable in that office, as opposed to merely proving that you can do one simple task quickly.

In the meantime, let me state for the record that I approve of your work ethic! :slight_smile:

11

It sounds like the people who are getting these copies should have kept their originals, not increased your workload by requesting copies. So, to encourage them to get their act together, management wants them to have to wait. By making them wait to get the info they need for expense reimbursement, it’s hitting them in the wallet. Management hopes to get their attention this way.

You’re right, it is stupid, but punishing employees is always stupid. The real solution lies in changing the process – something like Emailing the itineraries in the first place, so the employee’s original is always available to them.

Of course, that kind of obviates your job. Are you sure you want to go temp to perm at this place anyway?

12

The boss may not always be right but he’s always the boss.

You are paid to do as you are told, not to question it. It is good that you try to do your best but if you are told to do something else then that is what you should do. You may not understand it, it could well be that it is mistaken to do that, but that is not the way any hierarchy works. If everyone decides how to best do their job regardless of what the boss said things would not work as well as if they do what the boss says, even if sometimes the boss is wrong.

I have been in both positions. When I am the boss I do not always tell every reason I have. I just expect my subordinate to do the best job of what I tell him, not what he thinks is best.

When I am subordinate I will definitely point out ways to improve performance but after I have had my say I will do as I am told.

This reminds me of a very similar thing. Some years ago I was visiting a friend who owns a restaurant on the beach. It was summer and the place was packed. My friend was very busy as was all the staff so, to pass the time, I started helpng out. I see a group is seated and I take them some menus. My friend says, here sit at the bar and have something to drink. But I keep helping. I see another group is seated and I immediately take them their menus as I see the staff is so busy. My friend finally (with some exasperation in his voice) asks me to not help. I can see it is not a good time to ask why so I just settle down…

I can’t help thinking why would you want to keep customers waiting for their menus? I didn’t get it but it was obvious he was doing it on purpose.

At a quiet moment a few days later he explained. The kitchen was too busy to keep up. If you give the customers the menu right away and they order, the wait time will be too long. If you make them wait for the menu, after they order they will wait less for their orders.

Well, even after it was explained to me I am not sure I understand it but here is the fact: my friend is the successful owner and manager of a restaurant and I am not. I have to assume he knows what he is doing. It works for him.
When I sail my boat I want crew who can efficiently carry out orders, not crew who know so much more than I do that they feel the need to discuss every move. By the same token, when I crew on another boat I keep very much in mind that I am crew and I am there to do efficiently as I am told. My job is not to teach the skipper what I may know that he doesn’t. This is not the time nor the place.
So, getting back to the OP, Rilchiam, you did the right thing by trying to be helpful and efficient, no question about that. But now the boss has told you to do it differently and he has his reasons which may not be apparent to you. They may be valid or they may not but you are not the boss to judge. It could well be that your boss is a moron and you are extremely bright and helpful but the world still works better overall if the boss makes the decisions and the subordinates abide by them.

Some day you might be the boss and you will appreciate this. :slight_smile:

13

We have that philosophy at my workplace. But our set-up is a little different. We’re dealing with legal issues and we’re an impartial party, so we need to be careful not to “set a precedent” and give someone too much information or process their paperwork too fast or do something else that looks like we’re showing them a preference because then we’ll be obligated to do it for everyone.

But, yeah, most of the time it boils down to: don’t do your job too quickly or efficiently or else you’ll be expected to do it like that all the time.

Why yes, I do work in a cubicle festooned with Dilbert comics, why do you ask?

14

Yeah, that’s probably it. Thank you all for your kind words. And yes, I do want to go temp to perm at this place. The job has a lot to recommend it that other jobs haven’t.

15

Our country is running out of things to do. We are forced to treat employees well, so we lose manufacturing jobs to China and 3rd world countries who don’t care about people on an individual level. We don’t educate our people very well, so we’re losing engineering jobs to Japan and India. We automate everything we can, and will lose countless jobs because of that. We need more stuff to do. If people go around being efficient at their jobs, they will cost the jobs of their workmates thus causing great economic collapse. So when you’re asked to slow your work down a little, it is for the sake of the entire American Way Of Life.