Adult Children by Stephen Beals for October 15, 2021

The closing manager at work was telling me about a bad night of customer service problems that he had a couple of nights ago

The man wouldn’t last a week at my job stocking groceries, and he knows it

I wouldn’t last one shift doing his job, and I know it

I found my niche when I was hired to work in the field, away from faces and phones.

I used to solve lots of software problems sitting out on my dock with my feet in the water.

Try talking to a service rep who lives off shore…Philippines, Taiwan or further!

I’m sorry ma’am…do you know you are yelling?

Fourth panel: Been there…unfortunately.

WHERE’S YOUR MANAGER?? I’LL HAVE YOU FIRED!!

Oooooh…..one of my absolute favorite things to do to customers like that. I used to gently put my hand on their arm and say in a very sweet and sincere voice " Oh sir/mam….I sure hope I did not ruin your WHOLE day!". My coworkers close by would be doing their best to hold in their laughter. The customer would be so ticked then for they couldn’t really go anywhere else with that. They couldn’t tell the manager I wasn’t being nice. This was at a pet store where the managers were awesome and took our side with crazy customers like this. If they did try to tell the manager I was being sarcastic, the manager would respond with " This is one of the nicest employees we have here! She would never be sarcastic. ". Ah…it was so satisfying. Being sickening sweet back to negative customers is the best medicine. Trust me.

I often wonder how these cretins who tear into customer service people right from the start would react if the situation was reversed and they received unwarranted abuse.Not that abuse, as distinct from assertiveness, is warranted but you get my drift