14 smiling customer service Santas

RAP started a whole blogging trend about customer service, and wow did she have some crazy bad service stories. You can read all about them here and here. But yesterday, she decided it was time to give those customer care representatives some accolades if they deserve it. Too often we are caught up in how terrible a sales representative is, that we can totally forget and gloss over the times when we receive good customer service.

So, the first thing to define is "good customer service." What constitutes this? Is it just when they do their job? Like when they go in the back when you ask if they have this in another size rather than just blindly saying "no."? Is it when they apologize and comp a salad with a piece of balloon in it rather than sighing loudly and making a big scene when they take it away, and still manage to charge you for the second salad? When they take a shirt off a mannequin rather than saying "no! You can have another shirt! Ooook!?"? Or when they say hi to you when you come into the store rather than glare at you with disdain then turn back to their coworker and continue their conversation about the skank who was trying to hit on her man last night? I think it's more than that, it's more than just doing what they are supposed to do, and it's a sad day in our society that we give credit for being a "good" customer service representative when all someone is doing is their job. To truly be given an award of "good customer service", I think they need to go above and beyond what is expected in their job description.

Ironically enough, my best customer service experiences have been in grocery stores. Interesting, I know, it doesn't really scream "I'm happy to be working here!" but apparently they treat their employees right and in turn, they treat their customers with respect. A month or two ago, I was at the Food Lion, and I was searching for green peppers. The green peppers were okay in there, I could have taken one, but none looked quite as fresh as I wanted. Well, I guess I was standing there for a good while, because eventually a produce worker came up to me and asked if there was anything he could help me with. I sort of shrugged him off and said "oh, no thanks, I'm just looking for a good green pepper," and instead of walking away, he asked "would you like me to go in the back and bring out some more?" Now considering the three baskets were already overflowing (with what I deemed only somewhat acceptable green peppers), I was very grateful. I said "yes, please" and of course thanked him profusely when he returned. In my opinion, he went above by suggesting he could get me more, rather than waiting for me to ask, or just left me alone (after all, I did say no thanks).

Since that incident only happened recently, it's one of the only ones I can remember, but I do make sure whenever I receive good customer service to let the manager know. Too often the manager is beaten down by disgruntled customers and they are genuinely shocked and happy to hear a positive comment. It's my hope that by giving credit where credit is due, this employee continues to give good service and the number of instances with bad employee service would dwindle. 

This skit from MadTV is honestly one of the most HILAROUS things about "customer service" I've ever seen.



I know I'm posting this late. Last night I had almost completed when Pool Shark came over and it turned into one of those perfect random weeknights where you have a bottle of wine and make fun of all the whack-jobs we know, talk about boooooooys, and make plans to do a power hour!