For those of you who know me well you know by now that if there is a cause that I feel needs fighting for I am your woman. You probably also know that before I succumbed to breast cancer twice I worked 3 jobs, all of those jobs involved dealing with people, clients, customers, and sales. Me a sales person – no way! But I am not a sales person, honestly, what I am is a great, no fantastic people person, I relate to them and I know how people think. Ultimately when we are dealing with people it comes down to customer service and, even when I was waiting the first time for my results to tell me whether my breast cancer had spread, I had a smile on my face and my customers had no idea what was going on inside my head. Why would they? I had cancer so they had to suffer too? No way. I carried on working until I knew what treatment my doctors and surgeons suggested and when it was over I went back to work.
This week has been pretty stressful for me, and yes I know I created my own stress before you say it. The thing is I like to be treated with respect, I like people to consider my feelings and I am a good person. I treat others how I wish to be treated and that is fair. Unfortunately I do not always get treated fairly, but in the comfort and safety of my own home I do have choices. When the home telephone rang at lunch time a few days ago I answered politely and was subjected to what I first thought was a recorded message. A woman was offering me information, I had no idea who she was, and then she was barraging me with questions and I still had no idea who she was. I finally managed to ask who she was, and she shared her first name and place of work but could not care less who I was because she had no idea of my first or last name.
What eventually happened was I was so angry and upset with this call from someone who was very rude and nasty to me I spent my time finding out who she was so I could ask for an apology. Eventually I did track her down, but was met with more rudeness and the third time I talked with someone who apparently was her spokesperson who denied the calls ever happened and pointed me in another direction.
There is no point me telling the whole story, as it is still an ongoing drama, but I wanted to share with you all how this can impact not only the innocent people like me who answers these kinds of calls but also the organization these people are working for. When I worked the 3 jobs I was for all intents and purposes representing the company, and their brand and their reputation. Ultimately if an employee does not act in the best interests of the organization they are employed by not only does it mean customers could be lost via word of mouth, but the employee could face dismissal.
No matter how badly we want the sale, no matter if we detest the job we are employed to do, we have taken on the responsibility and trust of the person who employed us and I believe we should never abuse that gift. In this day and age with the economy not being the best it can be everyone is struggling to keep their heads above water and make a decent living.
Where customer service is concerned I am the best! I treat everyone I come into contact with equally, with respect and the best I can offer and I expect the same back. I do not blame the organizations for employing people who do not treat the customers with excellent customer service. But I do encourage other people to do what I do, let the organization know there is a problem and maybe, just maybe they can save one customer.
Today is another day, I have another cause to fight, and I will move on, one voice may be deemed a whisper, but one whisper can be heard by many.
