This customer came in that I’ve gotten to know over the past few months. She greeted me at the gas station one time as, "Mr. Bowtie!" Well, she asked to use me as a reference and said it could be as a personal reference since she didn't have any friends who would be a good reference. I'd given her job app tips, and leads on jobs and wished her well, that sort of thing. I said of course she could.
She thanked me and said she appreciated it and why was I always so good to her. She was trying to change her life and friends and get away from the drama and the problems and drugs and stuff and I’d always treated her well. I said, “I always thought you were a good person in a bad situation and I just hoped you’d be able to climb your way out of it. I knew you wanted better for yourself. I could see it.”
So, she started crying and asked if she could hug me. I said there were cameras and I’d get in trouble. So she shook my hand and held it and held it and cried and thanked me for believing in her even when she didn’t. That’s why she came in when she saw my car because sometimes I was the only bright spot in her day and I was a complete stranger to her.
The lesson here? Be nice to people. It's free and it might mean a lot more to them than you know. I was really surprised that she even noticed me as more than a schmuck in a bowtie.
To be fair I'd only initially started talking to her because I'm pretty sure she was stealing make-up from us so I hung around, struck up conversations and chatted to her until she left. She hangs out in make-up much less now than she did then but who knew we'd go from me suspecting she was stealing to what happened tonight. There's a bunch of opportunities out there to be kind to people that are free. Take advantage of them would you? One day it may be someone you love who you don't even know needs a friendly person out there in the world and you'd want someone to be there for them wouldn't you?
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
I don't speak Spanish but I try...
I get to talk to foreigners the most at work.
Other sales people, they’ll come and get me. I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t care that I don’t speak Spanish.
I know like 20 words. That’s a lot if they’re the right words. I help people and don’t care I don’t know the language. I use the words I know and listen to them, have them repeat it and then sort of guess what they’re saying using the words they’re using that sound like words, sometimes like Latin roots, sometimes like words I may know, sometimes like English counterparts. I’m rarely right, but sometimes close. Then I gabble at them in my few Spanish words, hand motions, lots of smiles and examples of nearby things that may be close, and sometimes Latin root words that I know aren't Spanish but may be close enough for them to get.
Surprisingly this works a LOT of times. It’s very funny for others to watch but is really appreciated by the person who speaks no English. It’s me trying to help them and obviously listening to them and not doing what all the other employees do, either walk away shaking their head saying they’re sorry or, worse, just talking louder and slower in English.
Part of why it works is I know a LOT of words and roots. Manos I know is hands not because it sounds like hands and I may not be spelling it right, but because it sounds like the first part of manipulate or mandible and that has a root of hand so I guessed hands. I was right. Seriously. I got Manos as hands by Latin roots tonight helping a customer, they were holding their hands out but that wasn't clicking. I thought they were like holding something that wasn't there at first. We got through it. They needed lotion for dry skin and they work outside in the cold frijo, frio, friha, not sure how it’s spelled and their hands were dying from it. They needed a really strong lotion and what to do about it. So, I told them which lotion, and about wearing cotton socks over their hands at night. They said they would try it. I swear I’m a genius. I really am. I don’t get the credit I deserve.
Then there was the lady with thinning hair who wanted Rogaine and how to use it. I figured it out, showed it to her, explained to her that using more wouldn’t make it more effective, just use un poco. mucho was just mucho denero, not mucho bueno. She totally got it. I'm positive no native speaker would say it that way but it worked. We were literally communicating with only like 20 words in common.
I credit my success with having been the one who didn't speak the language. When I lived in Germany I didn't speak German at first and would try and get by with what I knew. My vocabulary grew over time until I was fluent enough to watch movies in German and enjoy them. But at first there was lots of pantomime and me learning how to learn to communicate and how to be patient and how helpful it can be to have someone just try... and how nice it was to find someone willing to be ignorant but willing to try and help... how it wasn't embarrassing if it was helpful.
So, to all those Americans out there, and I've done it, who say, "You're in America, learn English!" Yeah. I get it... but you know what? When it was me I didn't learn German overnight and I appreciated the hell out of those native speakers who tried to understand me and communicate with me while I did learn.
Other sales people, they’ll come and get me. I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t care that I don’t speak Spanish.
I know like 20 words. That’s a lot if they’re the right words. I help people and don’t care I don’t know the language. I use the words I know and listen to them, have them repeat it and then sort of guess what they’re saying using the words they’re using that sound like words, sometimes like Latin roots, sometimes like words I may know, sometimes like English counterparts. I’m rarely right, but sometimes close. Then I gabble at them in my few Spanish words, hand motions, lots of smiles and examples of nearby things that may be close, and sometimes Latin root words that I know aren't Spanish but may be close enough for them to get.
Surprisingly this works a LOT of times. It’s very funny for others to watch but is really appreciated by the person who speaks no English. It’s me trying to help them and obviously listening to them and not doing what all the other employees do, either walk away shaking their head saying they’re sorry or, worse, just talking louder and slower in English.
Part of why it works is I know a LOT of words and roots. Manos I know is hands not because it sounds like hands and I may not be spelling it right, but because it sounds like the first part of manipulate or mandible and that has a root of hand so I guessed hands. I was right. Seriously. I got Manos as hands by Latin roots tonight helping a customer, they were holding their hands out but that wasn't clicking. I thought they were like holding something that wasn't there at first. We got through it. They needed lotion for dry skin and they work outside in the cold frijo, frio, friha, not sure how it’s spelled and their hands were dying from it. They needed a really strong lotion and what to do about it. So, I told them which lotion, and about wearing cotton socks over their hands at night. They said they would try it. I swear I’m a genius. I really am. I don’t get the credit I deserve.
Then there was the lady with thinning hair who wanted Rogaine and how to use it. I figured it out, showed it to her, explained to her that using more wouldn’t make it more effective, just use un poco. mucho was just mucho denero, not mucho bueno. She totally got it. I'm positive no native speaker would say it that way but it worked. We were literally communicating with only like 20 words in common.
I credit my success with having been the one who didn't speak the language. When I lived in Germany I didn't speak German at first and would try and get by with what I knew. My vocabulary grew over time until I was fluent enough to watch movies in German and enjoy them. But at first there was lots of pantomime and me learning how to learn to communicate and how to be patient and how helpful it can be to have someone just try... and how nice it was to find someone willing to be ignorant but willing to try and help... how it wasn't embarrassing if it was helpful.
So, to all those Americans out there, and I've done it, who say, "You're in America, learn English!" Yeah. I get it... but you know what? When it was me I didn't learn German overnight and I appreciated the hell out of those native speakers who tried to understand me and communicate with me while I did learn.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Helping people is what I do.
I knew there was some sort of big-shot supervisor mucky-muck in the store and saw him so I dragged her over to near him where I recapped the problem and restated it all so he could hear it, realize it was precisely within his bailiwick and rush to the rescue! Surely he got promoted for his outstanding skill helping customers and thereby building company image. He finally wandered off and while I know he heard us, he stayed to eavesdrop, he did nothing.
Later the phone rang and I took the call when i got back from some errand or another the cashier said to me as I came in, "Can you take the call on line 2? The guy's really pissed about something." So, I dashed to the office to fix it. Finally! Something I could do something about! I couldn't. It was her husband calling to continue the complaint about something wrong. Not only that, the manager had left him on hold for 23 minutes, unwilling to take the call! I explained who I was, that I'd known her for longer than I'd worked at this location and I cared more about fixing the problem and helping her than anything else. I told the story both from her point of view and the company's, pointing out the points of commonality and what areas I could do something about and that I would. I assured him it wouldn't happen again as she had my full attention and I'd take care of it. He hung up mollified, perhaps satisfied that I was sincere when I said I had a good outcome as my goal as well. In any event, when we hung up after a seven minute phone call he was certain he and I were both on the same side. The super-duper-visor who'd heard the problem from the manager, eavesdropped on our conversation and done nothing had been in the room for the whole phone call he said, "You handled him well."
I said as I left the office to go talk to her again, "I didn't handle him. I helped him. Isn't that what we're supposed to do here?" The door clicked closed behind me and neither of us saw or spoke to each other the rest of his stay there.
Helping customers is why I like customer service. I like helping them. I don't like DOING it for them. If you come in to buy a bunch of stuff at my new job and don't have the coupons… I'm not going to go get them for you or just edit the price. You want the coupon? Bring me the coupon. I'll help though. If you need help I'll help. I like to help. I'm good at helping. I said something similar to the manager of the store in the past that this story is talking about and he said, "If you do that for everybody they'll want it for free." I said, "They get it for free. You don't. You pay me to help them and do it better than anybody else."
Helping people is, in the parlance of today, my brand. It's what I do. It's true from my last job and it's true at the jobs in between and it's true at my new job. I'm good at fixing problems. I like fixing problems. I like helping customers. What I don't like is management who doesn't know that they're in the job of helping customers.
Ever had a manager or boss who you thought was in completely the wrong line of work? What'd you do?
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Kindle Fire & Amazon Customer Service
So, my Kindle Fire developed a weird screen thing where the screen would shoot vertical lines through it and then go black. In the dark you could sometimes see it was half the blacker-than-black from between scanlines on a TV and the other half was a dark gray. But the screen wasn’t viewable. Just the slightest tweak, or holding it ONLY on the left side would fix the problem stutteringly. Then it would stay OK for a while. Other times it’d be touchy and seemed not willing to stay on at all. Still other times it would go a negative so white was black and black was white. blue was red, etc. It was a negative… you know what that is. It got worse over time. I didn’t have a lot of time so I didn’t do much with it.
Finally tonight I went through the steps on amazon to do a return and got a message saying, “Can’t just return this item punk! You gotta talk to someone in a foreign country who is awake this late.” or words to that effect. With great trepidation I called the 800 number and got someone whose name I didn’t understand but his name was NOT “Peggy” and he did NOT tell me I couldn’t turn my airline miles into cash.
It was a guy, with an accent yes, but he was super friendly. Very helpful and never once asked if I’d dropped it, thrown it across the room, left it in a car overnight when it was eleven-degrees outside, shipped it across the country twice in a shoe box or anything else that might cause problems. He simply apologized for the problem and asked where to ship the replacement item. I told him and while we were talking an e-mail showed up with a link to print a shipping label. When the new one arrives I’m to put the broken one in the box, hand it to any UPS driver or store and toddle off to enjoy the replacement item.
No muss. No fuss. Free 2 day shipping to me. They couldn’t have been nicer, more solicitous, helpful, cooperative, or excellent to deal with. Seriously. I can’t imagine anything he could have done to make the experience more pleasant.
To answer your unanswered question: Would I still recommend someone get a Kindle Fire? The answer is absolutely YES if you have wi-fi at your home or work. If you don’t have wi-fi it’d be a harder sell for me. But with the wi-fi I have available to me at home, work, and the coffee shop it’s as good as always on for me. I love it for Netflix, facebook, comics, and reading websites. I don’t love it for books because the battery doesn’t last 2 weeks like my Kindle Keyboard (Which I love a little more than is healthy I think.). But I like it for books at night when the lights are out and I don’t want to turn on a table lamp.
Finally tonight I went through the steps on amazon to do a return and got a message saying, “Can’t just return this item punk! You gotta talk to someone in a foreign country who is awake this late.” or words to that effect. With great trepidation I called the 800 number and got someone whose name I didn’t understand but his name was NOT “Peggy” and he did NOT tell me I couldn’t turn my airline miles into cash.
It was a guy, with an accent yes, but he was super friendly. Very helpful and never once asked if I’d dropped it, thrown it across the room, left it in a car overnight when it was eleven-degrees outside, shipped it across the country twice in a shoe box or anything else that might cause problems. He simply apologized for the problem and asked where to ship the replacement item. I told him and while we were talking an e-mail showed up with a link to print a shipping label. When the new one arrives I’m to put the broken one in the box, hand it to any UPS driver or store and toddle off to enjoy the replacement item.
No muss. No fuss. Free 2 day shipping to me. They couldn’t have been nicer, more solicitous, helpful, cooperative, or excellent to deal with. Seriously. I can’t imagine anything he could have done to make the experience more pleasant.
To answer your unanswered question: Would I still recommend someone get a Kindle Fire? The answer is absolutely YES if you have wi-fi at your home or work. If you don’t have wi-fi it’d be a harder sell for me. But with the wi-fi I have available to me at home, work, and the coffee shop it’s as good as always on for me. I love it for Netflix, facebook, comics, and reading websites. I don’t love it for books because the battery doesn’t last 2 weeks like my Kindle Keyboard (Which I love a little more than is healthy I think.). But I like it for books at night when the lights are out and I don’t want to turn on a table lamp.
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