No, The Customer is Not Always Right!
Working in customer service taught me how to stand up for myself and not accept rude behavior.
I remember when I first worked in a customer-facing role. It was a restaurant that we, as students, ran. Where I’m from, there isn’t a typical high school you go to; instead, you go to a “Gymnasium” (upper secondary school preparing the student for higher education). So instead of everyone studying the same thing, you choose which program you want to participate in, and some classes like English and math are mandatory in all programs. Still, after that, the classes are particular to your chosen program. And thus we came to the restaurant mentioned earlier.
In our second year, we spent two days running a restaurant through the school where local people could come and have lunch. Mostly it would be teachers, but some local businesses would also come over. I, not thinking of the future so much (I mean, who does really at 15?!), decided to participate in the Hotel & Restaurant program as theory was never fun to me, and I did enjoy cooking back then (and still do).
I was quite a timid teenager and didn’t like confrontation. I still don’t. I remember we used to have these guys come in all the time and occupy the only round table we had. This was in the early 2000s, so technology wasn’t as big as today, and they worked at the only computer store in my tiny town; so important guys. While we worked in the restaurant, we would rotate stations every two weeks. My favorite station was desserts, of course, but I hated waitressing. The men above would always sit around the table deep in discussion, all with their elbows on the table, so you couldn’t even go around them to collect their plates when they were finished. You were invisible to them, yet we were expected to be cheery and friendly.
I remember I once had their table, and eight ordered different things. I wrote down what each person wanted, and the conversation went something like this:
Me: So, who ordered the fish and the chicken?
Them: -completely ignoring me-
Me again: I have the chicken dish and the fish dish here; who ordered what?
They finally looked up: Nobody ordered the fish. We all wanted chicken!
So, of course, all I had to do was trot back into the kitchen and ask for another chicken dish, even though the note I gave the chef had one fish dish written on it. This went on for about two years, always something different with these guys.
In our second year working in the restaurant, we had to cook and serve dinner for the graduates that year. Now that was a load of bull. We had to treat them with silk gloves even though they were also students. Even with the aforementioned restaurant above, we had loads of wonderful customers; some even tipped us, even though tipping is rare where I am from. Now I am not saying that every single customer is terrible. But when you eat almost an entire chicken breast and leave two inches of it and then complain that it wasn’t cooked properly, demanding a new one is not ok. But even then, I remember I had to trot back into the kitchen and ask the chef for a new one. This continued throughout my schooling.
But nothing prepared me for when I worked here in retail. The entitlement of some people is absolutely insane. I have had so many conversations go like this:
They: Hi, I would like to return this.
Me: Do you have a receipt?
They: No.
Me: Sorry, I can’t do anything then, as I need to scan the receipt
They: But I can show you my bank statement it will tell you when I bought it.
Me: Yes, but the bank statement does not give me any detail of what was bought. I need to scan the receipt and the item as they correspond with each other. These trousers could have been purchased a long time ago.
They: That is ridiculous. I shop here and spend a lot of money each time!
At this point, I would normally call for a manager as there isn’t much for me to do anyways as they, most of the time, refuse to leave the till.
I believe that anyone, before they go out in the real world should spend 6–12 months in a customer-facing role to understand how it is because it can be absolutely soul-crushing. I once had a man who tried to go into the fitting rooms, but they were all occupied, so I asked if he could wait outside. His response was to call me a f*****g bitch. At first, I was shocked and wasn’t even sure I heard him correctly, so I just walked away, and as I had my back to him, he repeated it. I was sure about what he said this time, so I went to tell security. Of course, when the security guy came over to ask him to leave, he had no idea what for; he was waiting outside the fitting room, wanting to try on some jeans. As he was being escorted out by security and as he was passing me, he turned to me and said, “I’m going to punch you in the mouth, you ugly c**t!” This earned him a shove out by security and a lifetime ban from any of our stores.
I don’t work in retail anymore, but at least at this store, management appreciated us. The customer was not always right, and we had the right to deny service to anyone rude. That doesn’t mean we never had any good customers. I would say at least 75% were amazing, and some would even apologize for being inconvenient. We had loads of regulars who would always start conversations with us and those we remember well. But somehow, we always remember the bad ones more.
The above scenarios were just the surface of my customer service experience, and I may make this into a series if I can find the time for it because I have loads more. And I haven’t even mentioned the sexism of working in restaurants all those years, but that will be for another story.
