If you only knew the things I'd let you get away with!

[Boozy]

I'm still getting my feet wet at my new job, and a few of our patients have been just fantastic with me. They've been patient when I'm processing their paperwork slowly. They've been understanding when I've made a mistake. They've made an effort to get to know my name.
Then there are the nasty ones who probably haven't even noticed that mine is a different face from the one they've been dealing with for years. I had one woman curse me out over the phone for a missed appointment charge that was entirely her fault. No show, no phone call, no apology. I spoke to my boss about it, and he told me to stand my ground and don't let her bully me.
That same afternoon, a really nice patient of ours missed her appointment, and called an hour later to apologize profusely. I tell her we'll have to charge her for the appoinment, and she says she understands, its no problem, again she's really sorry etc. So I tell my boss about this, and he says, don't charge her...she feels so bad there's no way she'll do it again.
I wish more customers knew that good behaviour really does pay off. Dealing with customers is sometimes like raising kids. Positive reinforcement is totally the way to go.
How many of you out there let their good customers get away with crap that you don't let SC's get away with?

[HawaiianShirts]

I don't think I let the nice customers "get away with" stuff, but I do try to cut them a break. For those nice customers buying our HP desktop computer packages, I often suggest swapping out the HP monitor for another brand, which is usually either a better monitor for the same price or the same quality monitor for a better price. I'll tell them about the 30-day price guarantee when they're buying stuff that's not on sale but might be sometime soon. I'll look up information for them if they're not sure what they need and don't have all the details for me at hand (like type and speed of RAM their computer accepts). If I think management might agree to a discount on a large enough purchase, I'll go ask on the customer's behalf.

The moment the customer turns sucky is the moment I stop being any more helpful or generous than I absolutely have to be. If you yell at me for a discount, then I won't even bother trying to get you one. If you decide I'm stupid because I don't magically know what type of RAM your "hard drive" or "modem" needs for an upgrade, then I'll tell you you'll just have to go home and look it up yourself. Yes I can look up an item to tell you when it'll be delivered to us again, but I won't if you blame me for being out of stock.

What goes around comes around, folks. It's called Karma. You CAN make it work for your advantage.

[batmoody]

I had a perfect example of such a SC from last night. Had she been a little, well maybe alot nicer, I would have helped her out.
She came through my line with 2 twelve packs of Coke and a 24 pack of Coke. Now, right now, we have a coupon in our add for 1 twelve pack of Coke for $2.49. She did not have the coupon. I scanned it and it rang up $3.49....all hell breaks loose.
SC: That is supposed to be $2.18! I saw it in your add before I came down here!
ME: (Knowing that she probably saw the COUPON for $2.49 - Not $2.18, played along....) Oh, really? Well lets have a look.

I pull out the add from my checkstand, mind you, the adds that are delivered to the store do not have the coupons in them, only the ones mailed to your house do. I look through the add, asking her to show me where she saw it.
The whole time she is wailing about how she made this special trip and what a waste of gas...just being a total witch.

Had she been nicer, I would have told her that she probably had seen the coupon in her add, that we dont have them at the store. But becasue she was such a witch, I was not forthcoming. Besides, she had the price wrong anyways, and for all I know it was another stores add.

[Department stores *sigh*]

actually my manager and I are trying to handle that big order mishap. The customer has been extremely understanding of the whole situation, and while he has expressed he is pissed off it wasnt in an SC manner. he stated that he was pissed but he knows it isnt our fault. Meanwhile our manager wants to do everything he can for this guy an is now delivering his product personally to his house tomorrow :O with some extra features.

We talked about it today about how we tend to go above and beyond for the good and understanding customers, but get the SC's out with the bare minimum to shut em up and send em to a competitor.

[TruthHurts]

At our hotel we have a 11am checkout policy and charge if you stay later, however if you aren't an SC, have a good excuse and are out by noon we will waive the charges.

[hecubus]

When I worked at the movie theater, Friday afternoons were our "Seniors' Dasy," with special extra-low prices for seniors. I used to work most Friday afternoons, so I go to know a lot of the regular customers quite well. The vast majority of them were very nice, pleasant, and easy to get along with.

As you know, at the theater, if you don't like the movie, it's generally just too bad. It's basically a crap shoot. However, I realized that, sometimes something that most audiences won't think twice about, some older people can get offended rather easily. Keeping that in mind, if one of my regulars would come up to me partway through a movie and say that they really didn't like the film, or were offended, and were not jerks about it, I would just tell them to go ahead and go into one of the other movies we had playing. It was no big deal to me, and most of them didn't make a habit of doing this, so I figured it didn't hurt to bend the rules for them just a bit.

[BookstoreEscapee]

The bookstore gives a teacher discount, only good on books to be used in the classroom. Unfortunately, if a customer says their Nora Roberts romance is for their 3rd graders, we're not allowed to argue with them. We can ask if it's for school, and if they say yes we have to give it to them. When I would get teachers who separated their personal books from their school stuff (which would normally require 2 separate transactions) I would just throw them all together and give the discount on everything, just for being honest.

I'd go out of my way searching for something in the back (there's a good chance our "magical back room" really does have what you're looking for...the problem is finding it in all the confusion back there ) for the people who were really nice, even if they had said not to worry about it. If I knew they were still in the store I'd do my best to get what they needed. If you're a bitch about it, I don't care. I'll look, but not too hard .

Once I delivered a book to an elderly, somewhat housebound lady right before Christmas. She needed it the next day; next day shipping is around 15 bucks, and it never actually gets there next day. We had the book in the store, so I cancelled the order and mapquested her address and brought it to her. Unfortunately no one was home so I just had to leave it in the mailbox.

-ams-

[skeptic53]

We warned a guy twice and then banned him for yelling and cursing at the employees, demanding completely unreasonable stuff. I asked him what he thought he was going to accomplish by being an asshat, he said "I usually get what I want if I yell and cuss".

I told him "Well that strategy doesn't work with me, and we don't tolerate this behavior toward our staff, so good-bye and don't come back".

[ArenaBoy]

The VIP spot that I am usually at happens to be right next to the highway and that VIP spot also happens to be blocked off when the event ends. If said VIP is nice to me and asks about the highway, I will point out the blockade we set up after the event and usually they choose not to park in VIP and thank me as they head inside.

[reformedwaitress]

When I was waiting table at the bar, if the bartender pulls a wrong beer (draft) or something was made wrong (drink or food) as long as it had not gone out to a table, we can still sell it. Usually though, I could get our manager to let me give it to one of my good regulars or something. And when I thought they deserved it, I could usually convince my manager to buy a round for a good table. And often times, I would buy a round for regulars every other time they were there or so (they tipped me more than enough to cover it anyway!) (c:

The second you were a jerk to me, though, ANY thoughts of you getting free drinks went right out the window. Being nice gets you a lot further than being an SC!

[Jazz]

If a customer is nice and very polite, I usually try to cut them a break. I stand my ground with those customers who are rude right off the bat. They have to learn what was learned in pre-school, rude behaviour doesn't lead to anything.

[Arachne]

I think I posted about this in a previous thread, but I'm the same way. I'll bend and/or break all kinds of rules for my favorite customers, not to mention going miles out of my way to find just the right yarn and/or pattern for them, giving them the better price when there's confusion about what I should be charging them, giving them hours of free instruction, and so on. For the nasty ones, I do the bare minimum, and then when they're not satisfied with that level of help, I go ahead and refer them to the competing store. "Maybe they can help you?" I say.

[GayleShy]

A few days ago I had a lady return an item at the service desk that was small, and I didn't need her ID or to give her lecture about only allowing three non-receipt returns in a year. Then the conversation went as follows.

SC: "What, you aren't going to chew me out for not having my receipt?" She sounded mildly disappointed.

Me: "No, I wasn't because I didn't need your ID. But normally we do only allow three returns without a receipt."

SC: *Looks happier* "But if I came back without on and was a b*tch, you'd still have to give me my money back, because satifaction is guaranteed."

Me: "No." I really REALLY hate that sign. I wish it would burn.

SC: "You have to, I can be a b*tch and you give me my money back anyway."

Me: *Shaking my head* "We frown on that, though."

She walked off. I knew she was baiting me and I was so tempted to take the bait, but I didn't. I was very proud of me. Normally, if we get the right CSM over there she'll give them a gentle lecture about how she can only do this one more time and save your reciepts, but because the woman told me she was going to be a bitch, I wasn't about to tell her that. I was SO tempted to point to the sign that says in bold letters "90 days WITH reciept" but we had a long line and I wasn't about to get into an argument over something that hadn't happened yet, which is what she wanted.

[basketseller]

I had a perfect example of such a SC from last night. Had she been a little, well maybe alot nicer, I would have helped her out.
She came through my line with 2 twelve packs of Coke and a 24 pack of Coke. Now, right now, we have a coupon in our add for 1 twelve pack of Coke for $2.49. She did not have the coupon. I scanned it and it rang up $3.49....all hell breaks loose.
SC: That is supposed to be $2.18! I saw it in your add before I came down here!
ME: (Knowing that she probably saw the COUPON for $2.49 - Not $2.18, played along....) Oh, really? Well lets have a look.

I pull out the add from my checkstand, mind you, the adds that are delivered to the store do not have the coupons in them, only the ones mailed to your house do. I look through the add, asking her to show me where she saw it.
The whole time she is wailing about how she made this special trip and what a waste of gas...just being a total witch.

Had she been nicer, I would have told her that she probably had seen the coupon in her add, that we dont have them at the store. But becasue she was such a witch, I was not forthcoming. Besides, she had the price wrong anyways, and for all I know it was another stores add.

It is always better to be nice. I had an instance last weekend. On vacation in Florida I'm at the rent a car counter to pick up my Economy car. I knew when I booked it, it was an economy car. The listing said Hyunday accent or similar. It's not like you are not warned what kind of car you are getting. Anyway I'm waiting in line to pick up my economy rent a car and this asshat in front of me is giving the lady all kinds of heck because his stuff won't fit in an economy car. Well then why did you book one moron? I digress, sorry. Anyway, the rental car lady tells him he can go to another rental company to see if they have any and while he is looking she will wait on the next person in line (ME!!). So I go up to the counter while asshat is at the next counter crying because he can't get a bigger car and in the mean time comes back in line behind me. I ask the lady how her day is and making small talk. She is processing my reservation and I ask her out of curiosity if I was getting the Hyundai as I have never had one and we excited about driving one. She said oh yes we have one for you, so she processes my car and tells me to go get the keys to my Malibu. I asked what kind of car and she said "We have no more economy cars and I don't want to make you wait so I have upgraded you to a mid size malibu. Have a nice day" I smiled and said thank you and wished her a nice day. She then proceeded to wait on the irate man behind me (remember him?) and told him all she had for him was the economy car. He was pissed but took it.

See it pays to be nice!!!!

[Arcade Man D]

It's a lot like that where I work. If you're nice while I'm running ticket redemption, and you want something that you're just short on tickets for, sure thing, I'll give it to you. If you're an a**, you get to use precisely how many tickets you have, no more.

We have one game that we have a policy on about no refunds under certain conditions ((those being if you don't put 8 tokens in for the first game because it requires a card, and we only have a bunch of posters about it right there.)), however, if you're nice about it, I'll use one of the umpteen million cards that were left there by customers and let them try the game out for just the 4 tokens. But if you're mean about it? Sorry, bucko. I can't give you a refund, and I won't tell you about the umpteen million cards in the drawer.