Customer assistance at the risk of your job

[Backroads]

We had a rather funny (to me) incident at my office this morning. Woman in the Scout Shop began screaming and swearing at everyone (in front of her toddlers) because the Scout Shop refused to sell her extra merit badges and awards she wanted to have on hand for the future.

Onto my point: What escalated this was an employee in the shop told this woman "I am not going to risk my job for you" (They had to fire an employee the other month because of this very thing).

Now I think it was not the most tactful choice of words, but it made me think of this question.

Since most companies value customer service and all that, is it ever okay to go against policy to please a customer? Would you? Even if it possibly costs you your job?

[Guest FixingTheWrongs]

It is hard to say. If I knew I'd get fired for sure, no probably not. If I'd get a slap on the wrist or a scolding for pleasing a customer, yes I'd do it.

[Spartan117]

I probably wouldn't risk my job for a customer like you're describing. I tend to not want to help people who yell and swear at me.

[Dravin]

Since most companies value customer service and all that, is it ever okay to go against policy to please a customer?

You need to define okay, I'm reading it as in, "Okay with your employer", obviously if you are talking in a moral or even legal sense that changes the question somewhat.

The thing is that a lot of companies aren't actually aware of all the ins and outs of their policies (or haven't defined it). So denying a customer to conform to policy or ignoring policy to please a customer can get you in trouble depending on who is employing you and their personal thoughts on the matter. Now as somewhere there surely exists some situation in which violating policy to appease a customer would be okay (keep in mind the phrasing "ever okay" means there need only be one such situation) with some employer (even if just informal policy) then the answer is yes.

[Backroads]

You need to define okay, I'm reading it as in, "Okay with your employer", obviously if you are talking in a moral or even legal sense that changes the question somewhat.

Attempt at restating...

In situations where policies are clearly defined, can situations ever arise where it may be better to please the customer than follow policy?

[Guest gopecon]

I can't see where helping a customer would be worth my job, unless they were going to be seriously wronged without my assistance. If my employer was taking advantage of people that badly I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving.

Employment agreements are between the employer and employee. An employee has the primary obligation to act in the best interests of his employer. There could be times when the goodwill from bending the rules would work out well for both, but the employer's interest should generally prevail if one has to make the choice. In many cases employers (I'm thinking restaurants primarily) have guidelines in place to allow for making the customer happy at the expense of the business in the event of a dispute.

[Guest gopecon]

If the policies are clearly defined, then you had better be prepared to face the consequences of violating said policies. As FixingtheWrongs said, it depends on how severe the consequences are. From the employer's perspective, if they went to the trouble of clearly defining a policy and you violate it, then from their perspective you are wrong.

[Dravin]

Attempt at restating...

In situations where policies are clearly defined, can situations ever arise where it may be better to please the customer than follow policy?

Better for who? You? Your employer? The customer? I think most people are taking it in the sense of job security (which would be 'you'), which is how I took it as a being okay with your boss deal as it is not good for job security to be not okay with the boss.

Edited September 22, 2011 by Dravin

[slamjet]

I would go through that all the time in the clinic I worked at. Bottom line is this, they are not demanding customer service, they are demanding free stuff that would otherwise not be free. They are only taking advantage of you with little regard to your well being so long as they get what they want.

In the medical field, we use the word "fraud" and "fraudulent" a lot to drive our point home. No one person who want's free stuff is worth my job.

[beefche]

Policy is there for a reason. Perhaps there are people who have the authority to override a policy to make a decision in favor of the customer. But, if that is not my job, then my integrity says to conform to the policy (this is assuming the policy isn't immoral or illegal).

We had a situation where we needed to reduce our bills. I called our satellite company to find out if I could get the deal offered to new customers (it would have upgraded our system and reduced our bill by about $35/mo). At that point, our options were to either get that deal or cancel. The customer service rep I spoke with couldn't do that for me. She simply didn't have that authority. But she did transfer me to another department that could help me. Once I explained what we were looking for and why, he got very detailed and was able to help us upgrade and lower our bill by around $30. The first customer service rep didn't go against policy by transferring me. The second one didn't go against policy to offer us discounts.

My concern with going against policy is two fold: as an employee, you basically say you will do the job as assigned by the employer for the amount of money agreed upon. That means to me that you agree to abide by their policies--if you don't agree with them, find another job. If you choose to circumvent the policies, you've sacrificed your integrity. Secondly, if you do it for one, why not the next one? Why the arbitrary decision to help the one? Again, that sacrifices my integrity to be arbitrary like that.

[Backroads]

Better for who? You? Your employer? The customer? I think most people are taking it in the sense of job security (which would be 'you'), which is how I took it as a being okay with your boss deal as it is not good for job security to be not okay with the boss.

and therein lies the question.

In what situations would you give in to the customer?

In this particular one, I worked in the Scout Shop during a portion of college and recognized this policy. My work now teaches me the ethical necessity of not giving out unearned merit badges and ranks. And, as I said, in this situation, someone was just fired for selling these without proof of earning.

In my situation now... I have a lot of trouble giving into the customer. Mostly because I'm in a situation that involves a lot of private information and legal documents. It may be a long-shot, but in my position "favors" to someone might come back to bite me in the rear later on during an audit.

Edited September 22, 2011 by Backroads

[Gwen]

In the situation you described, someone was just fired for doing that, I would not do it. I have no problem telling the customer that either.

Other situations make the customer happy. I had a friend working cashier at a fast food place. Some woman's order came up $6.66. The woman freaked out and started to panic. My friend, quickly said something like "Let me double check your order....." read back the order, applied the senior citizen discount, gave her the new price, and apologized for the "mistake". Made the woman happy and they went on their way.

[Delanie]

Interesting...

If my job would be risked by doing so, I would not help the customer. Providing for me and my family is a lot more important (to me) than making someone's else's life easier. Sounds horrible, but that's how I feel. If the policy could cause me to lose my job, it's probably kind of important.

Someone mentioned how often we would skip policy, and that's important to consider. Why have the policy if every sob story trumps it?

There's also the statement of "they'll never learn." I had an office job where a man was always "I understand the policy, but just this once, it's an emergency!" Everytime. The man had no intention of changing his ways, so he didn't get too many freebies.

But if it isn't a big deal and is only against a vague and unimportant policy and it is of important to the customer... yeah, I might cut the customer some slack.

[Dravin]

In what situations would you give in to the customer?

In situations in which, despite extant policy, I had really, really, really good reason to expect my boss to have me act contrary to policy. In other words, where practical policy might conflict with what is in the book. One example might be a policy stating that we are to under no circumstances comp a meal if they've eaten more than 1/2 of it, but the boss* tells me to comp a meal anyway.

Otherwise no. And while I'd never put it this way to the customer, the business' policies are the terms of interaction between the business and the customer. Don't like'm? Take a flying leap.

* Not necessarily any boss either, we're talking owner, not just some manager.

Edited September 22, 2011 by Dravin

[RescueMom]

In my job we never give out anything free. Our policy is never to tolerate screaming or cursing, we can walk away from, or hang up the phone on them, and it's ok. We also have security measures in place for crazy people. If they don't like the way I or one of my co-workers handle things we always have our managers talk to them...and so on. 90% of the time our bosses back us, sometimes not.

[NeuroTypical]

If a company wishes to not make customers happy, it is not the employee's job to make them happy.

If a company wishes to make employees powerless in the face of customers who are angry for no good reason, it is the employee's job to leave and find a better job somewhere else.

If anybody breaks any laws, people can get in trouble.

[skippy740]

A business that wants to remain in business needs to have good customer service/negotiation skills.

A great thing to say is "I don't know. Let me find out for you."

Get the manager to help understand the intention of the request by the customer.

The manager should then state the policy and why it is that way... then, if they're offering an exception, back up the original policy stated by the team member and that the manager is making a one-time exception.

No business should have to apologize for its policies & procedures.

No customer should expect to always "be the exception" to every policy.

A person who could lose their job, should always have a supervisor available to help explain "why we do the things we do".

I think it's best to have all team members of a company know who to ask... so THEY don't have to be the "bad guy". In fact, they are offering a great service... just for asking someone else - even though they already know the answer.

[Iggy]

For 8.5 years I worked at the True Value Hardware store here in town. The owner, (Woman over 70, she had owned the store for 20 yrs before I went to work there) had a policy that we employees answer the phone BEFORE the third ring. If we could not fully help the phone customer, then we transferred the call to her.

She also had a store policy: If I don't have it, and can not find a distributor selling it, then you just do not need it. In Other Words, she went above and beyond to find the item you needed.

On these special orders, she never took any payment before hand.

She sold the business and the new owner did away with all of her Customer Service policies. I only stayed for one month- I got so tired of the customers complaining to me and demanding to know what the HADES was going on.

Rather than tell them my personal thoughts and opinions, I referred them to the new owner. He was real big on having us page him to come to the front to supervise the distributors and salesmen, so I paged him to the front habitually to answer to the complaining customers.

The previous owner had given me a print out of all of the In House Credit customers, showing their buying history and their payment history. Because of his piss-poor customer service attitude he lost each and every one of them. 120 clients, including the Oregon State Forestry Service, Road Dept,, Sheriff's Dept., and every contractor-electrician, plumber, etc. in Lincoln County OR.

After I left, it took nearly a year for these very unhappy customers to finally quit cornering me at the post office, super markets, and restaurants, demanding to know why she (the previous owner) sold to him. She sold to him because he paid her asking price.

One of her policies regarding unhappy customers: Be pleasant, be polite, be firm - tell the customer that you do not have the authority, but you will get some one who does. If the boss is not on the premises- then you make an appointment for them to see her the following day at THEIR earliest convenience. She was at the store at 6 AM EVERY day- so they could meet with her from 6 AM until 8 PM.

When is it okay to give in? For you the employee who has NOT been given the authority to make such decisions - NEVER. ALWAYS refer them to your immediate supervisor. ALWAYS. Be pleasant, be polite and be firm. Oh, it is also extremely important that you be consistent! Believe me, customers talk to each other.

[Kit-Kat]

One of her policies regarding unhappy customers: Be pleasant, be polite, be firm - tell the customer that you do not have the authority, but you will get some one who does. If the boss is not on the premises- then you make an appointment for them to see her the following day at THEIR earliest convenience. She was at the store at 6 AM EVERY day- so they could meet with her from 6 AM until 8 PM.

When is it okay to give in? For you the employee who has NOT been given the authority to make such decisions - NEVER. ALWAYS refer them to your immediate supervisor. ALWAYS. Be pleasant, be polite and be firm. Oh, it is also extremely important that you be consistent! Believe me, customers talk to each other.

Beautifully said. Thank you!

The problem I encounter often is having a boss who asks me to go against policy.

Edited September 24, 2011 by Kit-Kat

[Blocky]

Reminds me of the signs that say: 'We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone'.

I once worked at a hotel that offered 2 free breakfasts a day per room. We used little paper vouchers for the breakfast. Sometimes I would hand out 4 per room. It was against policy but it made those people soooo happy. It didn't risk my job though. If it had, I would have guarded those paper vouchers fiercely!

When the customer got rude and wanted something for free, I gave them a great big fat nothing. I would do it very cheerfully though. When people start yelling and threatening, I don't want their business, I don't want them in my place of business and I have a feeling that person said 'I'm not risking my job for you' because the woman in the original post was already getting pretty rude and demanding herself.

[Vort]

She has a lot of people 'buffaloed' (hmmm, looked up synonyms for that word and came up with - intimidated, threatened, bullied, frightened - really sums up how she is). Rather scary, that.

[threadjack]

"Buffalo" is a great word. You can string it together any number of times from one to infinity and get a parsable, grammatically correct sentence. This is because "buffalo" is a verb, a singular noun, and a plural noun. For example:

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

This can be interpreted several ways. One way is: "The bisons who bully other bisons bully bisons bullied by other bisons." "Fish" works the same way. Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish.

[/threadjack]

[Dravin]

This is because "buffalo" is a verb, a singular noun, and a plural noun.

Buffalo is also a proper noun.

[pam]

Some woman's order came up $6.66. The woman freaked out and started to panic.

That reminds me when I managed a convenience store. I can't believe how many people would quickly find something else to buy if their total came to $6.66.

[Blackmarch]

We had a rather funny (to me) incident at my office this morning. Woman in the Scout Shop began screaming and swearing at everyone (in front of her toddlers) because the Scout Shop refused to sell her extra merit badges and awards she wanted to have on hand for the future.

Onto my point: What escalated this was an employee in the shop told this woman "I am not going to risk my job for you" (They had to fire an employee the other month because of this very thing).

Now I think it was not the most tactful choice of words, but it made me think of this question.

Since most companies value customer service and all that, is it ever okay to go against policy to please a customer? Would you? Even if it possibly costs you your job?

possibly.. but not in this case.

[Vort]

Buffalo is also a proper noun.

Yes, you can certainly talk about the buffalo from Buffalo, though I think that's borderline cheating.