Does Reading CS Change You?

[karath]

Well for one thing, I'm a lot more apt to read everything. Having worked at fast food for (good God, has it been that long?) 3 years, I'm already a LOT more polite to anybody in customer service (I'm still amazed at how far a simple "thank you" can go sometimes) but now I make sure that I KNOW what I'm getting into when I sign a contract.

...Well, ok, NOW I do. I kinda screwed myself over recently because I forgot that there are definitely times when blatant refusal is the order of the day.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Do you find that reading Customers Suck changes the way you deal with people who are helping you?

<snip>

So.... how has Customer Suck changed you?

Nope. Not in the least. I just have someplace else to talk about my horrible days (I'm still using my Dad as a therapist and he finds some of my customers to be total nimrods).

[PepperElf]

Since coming to CS I try to be nicer, especially when employees are slow or having issues.

I'd rather cause people to post threads about customers being *nice* to them instead of how someone treated them like crap.

So... like when the woman at the register is having trouble with it and I end up waiting a little over 5 minutes in the express lane... much easier to give her a bright smile when she apologizes for the delay. (besides it was her first day so it's bound to be a little stressful)

[Rapscallion]

Owning and running CS has made a few changes for me. What amused me recently, though, was explaining that I ran a forum and how much it cost me. He was agog, until I pointed out that when it was split over four weeks and compared to the cost of going out a couple of times a week, I was ahead of the game. I also got more pleasure out of it.

Rapscallion

[erasily_ani]

I'm not in retail anymore, so it can't exactly change how I deal with customers, but it has changed how I deal with employees.

I like to think I was always a pretty good customer. I've been there, I've done that. I've done the serving / bartending thing. I understand tipping and I know people have bad days.

But I think reading these stories has made me think twice about what I say and do when I'M having a bad day -- the employees don't deserve that! It also makes me a little more patient when I deal with an employee who may seem a little upset. I've started smiling and saying "Sucky customers?" if it's not too busy and I don't think they'll get in trouble. They usually smile and I just say I understand. Some of them I tell about this place.

But basically, I think it's made me a better customer. Which is the best we can hope for.

[SG15Z]

OH yes it has. I mean working in retail already made me tip good, and be understanding if they are short handed or something. But the sight has made me be much more understanding tip way better (if they're good of course. If they're really bad service well you get the picture). It also helped me handle SC's when I'm the FES. Before I use to just be really quite and often let them walk all over me. Now I'm really firm with customers making absolutely sure I have a spine. Have coupons that have been alter by you using a pen to change the exp. date? Sorry not excepting, in fact I'm tearing it up and throwing it away (has happened before. SC didn't react well to that)

[Sharsarannon]

I think this site has made me be a bit more extra-careful about being polite and grateful to the people I come in contact with in public. In addition to helping make the world a nicer place and possibly making someone's day brighter, there's always the joy of knowing none of these stories will ever be about me!

Alternately, this site has confirmed my fears that half of humanity is made up of nice decent thinking sapients... and the other half... is made of Sucky. Pink camo wearing, pants ordering, vacationing, entitlement-ridden sucky. Just to name a few of they myriad varieties.
I told my mother about this site and she thought it was a horrible idea, for retail workers to get together and rag on people who couldn't be all that bad and were just having a bad day. I find her naivete amusing, and endearing, as long as I don't go shopping with her.

[candyshopgirl]

If anything it make me able to deal with CS better.It used to be all I had to vent to was my friends or husband.They are all sick of it,so hence the site.