Customers

Last time, we discussed how co-workers can sometimes be just as guilty as management when it comes to squashing employee morale. Today, we're going to tackle a third group of people that can be just as bad - customers.

Let me start out by saying that yes, I realize the irony of including customers in this discussion, considering that without customers, most of us would be jobless. However, that doesn't mean that they can't be a royal pain, and a drain on your happiness.

Most, if not all, of you work in a profession that deals with customers, either directly or indirectly. Maybe you work in a restaurant, or a clothing store, or maybe you sell cars, or work in a doctor's office, or maybe you're on tv. In one form or another, you deal with customers every day. Some of them are nice, personable, friendly people. Unfortunately, it seems like more and more these days, those kinds of people are few and far between.

Instead, you get to deal with people who think it's their god given right to treat you like crap. If you've ever been a waiter or waitress, you've surely dealt with the person who sends back the food you've brought them, even if it was prepared exactly as they had asked, and they aren't always very polite about it. If you've worked in the mall, you've dealt with the person who thinks it's your fault that this year's "must have" toy is sold out two days before Christmas and can't believe you'd deny their child the right to have that toy. If you've worked in a call center, you've no doubt had the caller from hell who refuses to listen to anything you have to say, and then asks to speak to your manager and proceeds to tell your manager that you refused to tell her what she wanted to hear. (I've had someone tell me this story once - she had someone on the phone telling her "You're not telling me what I want to hear!" Sorry lady, but if what we're telling you is not what you want to hear, you're just out of luck)

The best is when customers get verbally abusive with you. Usually this happens to people who answer phone calls or emails, because it takes more guts to actually yell at someone in person than to yell at someone over the phone. Occasionally though, you'll get that special someone who, for whatever reason, gets it in their head that the best way to get what they want is to physically threaten someone. Fortunately, this is usually a rare occurrence, but I have known people who have had this happen to them. I've also had someone tell me that they've received a death threat from someone over the phone (fortunately, an empty threat, the person is still with us).

It doesn't have to be a life or death situation for a customer encounter to ruin your day. Sometimes, what starts out as a pleasant conversation turns ugly, and a customer says something like "Get me someone who knows what he's doing," and suddenly you're in a sour mood for the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes it only takes one bad customer to make you ugly, and then you inadvertently take it out on other customers or your co-workers, even if they don't deserve it.

Of course, you can't respond the way you'd like to respond, because "The customer is always right." These five words have done more harm to people who work in customer service than anything else I can think of. Whoever thought of this line didn't realize the repercussions that would be felt for many years to come. It gave customers (many of whom are morons, like the rest of us) the feeling that no matter how ridiculous their claim is, they are "right" and should get their way, no matter what. It is this kind of thinking that has caused so many people to resent customers, often times unfairly. Not all customers are bad, but the bad apples cast a large shadow over the good ones, sometimes making it hard to distinguish between the two.

So what are your thoughts? Are customers just as bad as co-workers when it comes to harming employee morale? Does either group compare to management? Have any bad customer stories you'd like to share? Post a comment and let us know.