I work in an industry that requires lots of care of other human beings at a time when they are quite emotionally vulnerable. Now, for privacy reasons, the story I am about to tell you cannot be accompanied by specifics, names or anything that might identify the people concerned, but I'm going to tell it as best I can so that I can illustrate to you what a BITCH of a day I have had today.
Last week I spent a large portion of my work hours dealing with a particular Client. I was looking after one component of the bigger picture, and spoke with this person on the phone, initially via a call instigated by me in the name of 'Customer Service'.....the 'courtesy call'.
All was going well until the Client decided to voice her disappointment at another aspect of the bigger picture, not looked after by me, but obviously in the Client's mind, something that I could help her with. No problem, I listened to her complaint, and when I realised it was something that I could actually make worse if I said too much, I referred the case to our Customer Service specialist for followup. But only referred it for followup. I must reiterate this, because after the referral, I still spent 40 minutes on one call with the Client, helping her out, guiding her, listening to her bitch about her family, listening to her bitch about my colleagues, going OUT OF MY WAY and BENDING OVER BACKWARDS to help her through her difficult time.
I took countless calls from this Client, talked her through all that she needed to be talked through and then went even FURTHER, and helped with some of the components of the bigger picture that were NOT actually under my 'work description', but which I knew I was able to do, and so I did it. No problem, all in the name of compassion and Customer Service.
As the process went on last week, the last couple of phone calls were finished by The Client saying things like 'Thankyou Janeane, you have been soooooo helpful and soooooo kind', and I of course believed what I was being told.
I left work last Friday thinking "OK, this has been a shit week, but at least with The Client, I was able to gain some positive ground for The Company because The Client was actually happy with how things turned out in the end."
Wrong wrong wrong.
Got an email this morning from The Client, saying how disappointed she was in the service she (didn't) receive from my department, and how disappointed she was in the service she (didn't) receive in the bigger picture.
The complaint against my department was something I could check, and guess what, she was wrong in what she complained about. There was one small but fixable error, and granted we don't like to have even the smallest errors in our business, but it was totally fixable and was fixed on the spot.
The complaints about the bigger picture were from my point of view sooooo totally unrealistic and petty.....and not even a part of my job to 'rectify', but The Client obviously felt very comfortable with me after all of her dealings with me last week, because it was me (and me alone) that she chose to email to voice her discontent. The email contained complaints against people other than me, but it was addressed to me as if it could be fixed by me!
I was fine until I phoned one of the other victims of this complaint, and once I told her about the email, I burst into tears. My colleague was lovely, talked me through it, while I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't the COMPLAINT as such, but the fact that it was an UNJUST complaint that was really getting to me, and that I had put in such an effort with The Client last week and she STILL found fault, and the faults she found weren't even real!!!
Even allowing for her emotional state, I felt totally jipped at being chastised for an apparent lack of 'level of service'.
Which leads me to two conclusions about Life In General:
- Customer Service sucks eggs big time sometimes and you just can't win
- NEVER believe your own publicity
Today has been a BIG lesson for me in learning that no matter what The Client says to you, you are NOT amazing and have NOT saved the situation, because you do NOT know exactly what they are thinking. E-V-E-R.
Where last week I was thinking "Well Janeaney, you did a pretty good job there, might have saved a problem for the bigger picture with the way you handled The Client - they even SAID you were super dooper wonderful", today I was shocked at the realisation that I wasn't as fantastic as I thought, and that no matter how fantastic I actually might be, I would never be fantastic in the eyes of a Client who at the end of the day is either psycho or simply fishing for a discount in the name of 'poor' Customer Service.
And, being the 'analyser' that I am, I can only conclude that I believed the praise that was heaped upon me because either
- I am suffering from such low self esteem that I need to believe every compliment that comes my way, just to feel good about myself or,
- I am totally up myself and enjoyed having it all reinforced by The Client in this instance.
One of the above HAS to be the reason I took this criticism so hard, I just can't figure out which one yet.
So....most of my morning today was spent in tears or close to tears, with a muddled brain that found it very hard to concentrate. I had to run through the situation with the Customer Service Manager, via both email and over the phone, and do it without tears (which I managed). I had to breathe deeply and realise with an objective outlook that no matter what I (and my colleagues) did, this Client would make sure that this situation was still going to happen. I had to take a lesson in humility, just suck it up and know that The Client had to (under the notion of 'The Client is always right' be in the right, even when she wasn't, and at least I had the support of my colleagues that were both directly and indirectly involved. Solidarity in 'defeat' - I think that is what I shall name it.
And I had the wonderful VN who talked me through losing my Customer Complaint virginity. And I don't care what ANYBODY says, losing your Customer Complaint virginity DOES HURT!!
The impact of this email continued through the day - at one point I tripped on the phone cord, and totally pulled the phone off of the desk of my co-worker. Straight away the thought of 'Oh fuck me, what else can go wrong today???' went through my head, and I burst into tears AGAIN. I grabbed my headset off of my noggin, threw it across my desk and ran to the Ladies to have a good long cry.
The lovely AW followed me in to see whether I was OK (first time they'd seen me upset at my new job) and to talk it over....again. The lovely MS told me about her experiences, and times when she had ended up in tears. The lovely SL offered me tissues, ciggies and coffee. The lovely JG looked up from his computer and asked "Are you OK Janeane?" and ever so quietly hid all the knives. I love these guys.
After talking about it with enough people you get a bit of perspective, and by the afternoon it was pretty much out of my mind, until I occassionally scrolled back through the inbox for some other reason and that fucking email was staring me in the face. I had initially saved it in The Client's file, so I should have deleted the fucking thing, but for whatever reason, I didn't, so it came back to haunt me every now and then.
Tomorrow I won't see it again, as there will be so many emails in the inbox that it will have moved waaaaaayyyyyy down the bottom and out of my sight.
And no doubt, at least one of those new emails will be the beginning of a relationship with a New Client, that may lead me down a similar track. But at least this time I will be prepared, I will see the signs, I will NOT take compliments seriously enough to believe that I am Customer Service Chick of the Year, and I will be prepared.
Talk tomorrow
Janeane xx
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