I'm an Angry Customer. Deal with Me

Note to every employee of every company I deal with:

My anger is not personal.  If I am pissed off, there's usually a good reason, and often that reason relates to a product or service you've sold me.

I may be lying to you, for one reason or another.  I may misrepresent your company's promises to me.  I may let other factors get the better of me and behave badly.

For these things, I apologize.

Now, let's talk about how you behave...

I don't care what your company policy is, unless you indicate you've heard what my problem is.

I don't care whose fault it is, but I'm willing to listen if you show you're listening to me.

I don't care why you can't help me.  I want to know who can help me.

I'm assuming you're working from a script and will try to thwart me.  I hope you prove me wrong.

I do care about your company, or I wouldn't be bringing this problem to your attention.

Seth Godin has some good tips for employees. It's not rocket science. It's manners and being human.

Update:  John Andrews has a great response on his blog, suggesting I haven't even begun to act like an angry customer.  He says I'm just a miffed customer...

Tags: service, retail, behavior, anger, rage, sethgodin, business, communications, manners

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Comments

[David Jones]

Great post...but that picture will give me nightmares. I've made a mental note to stay on your good side.

[Eric Eggertson]

That was a self-portrait that made me look a bit too much like Stephen King. However, when I needed a freaky-looking photo, I had one at hand.

Just watch out for my infrared vision at the next new media conference...

[Emma Lambert]

I think half the problem is that face to face and personal communication with all big corporations is now so rare. People with a complex problem get more and more frustrated as they are passed from call centre to call centre.