One of my biggest pet peeves (besides people who wear their pajamas to the store or people who say ‘LIBARY’ instead of ‘LIBRARY’….don’t look at me like that….you know you don‘t like it either!), is poor customer service. Good customer service is one of the pillars for a great business. In these times of fiscal insecurity, if you couple low prices with great customer service …you could probably sell a knock-off Prada to a Kardashian.
Which leads me to my current story about my almost ‘take down’ moment at our local Fresh and Easy supermarket. Today as I took my basket and started in the fresh produce isle and worked my way to the 50% off section I came across and employee that was marking down some items. I was polite and tried not to get in her way, but I made the mistake of actually wanting to shop.
Let me set the scene for you. As I was looking at a very nice wrapped sandwich for $1.50 with an expiration date of 7/19/10 …..the following ensued.
Me: “Excuse me. what’s the date today?’
Her: “I’m trying to mark some items down and I need to get this done. If you insist on getting in the way I am going to have to close this section off.“
Me: Getting slightly annoyed, but everyone has a right to have a bad day. “Sure, I just want to get these sun dried tomatoes and I am out of your way.”
Her: “I am going to be marking those down even more, if you let me get my work done.”
Me: “Do you mind checking these and marking them down so I can get out of your way?”
Her: Exasperated at me…”No, I haven’t gotten to those yet and if you don’t move I am going to close this section off.”
Me: Not feeling so nice anymore…but trying to keep a pure heart. “You need to calm down and stop stressing out. “..said as I walked away.
Her: “I am not stressing out.”
Me: “Yes, you are and you need to calm down…” (Walking away before I ‘mark her down’…and possibly get arrested. I can’t get arrested without my best friend….that is on her bucket list, not mine)
So, I finish my shopping and walked to the cash registers…where I see her in the middle of an employee huddle. When I walked by I hear her whisper to her employees “I wanted to slap that lady”…..OH NO YOU DIDN‘T!! Not today…..not THIS Monday Lady!!
I usually don’t like confrontations and I am very bad at telling people what they need to hear. Don’t get me wrong, I am brilliant when it comes to telling people off ½ hr later when I have thought of really good stuff I should have said, but when I am in the ‘moment’ I am so mad I start to tear up…..yeah, I know!!
But not today! Today I turned around and looked straight at her and asked her (in front of her staff…can you believe she was a supervisor? WTF!!) “Did you just say you wanted to slap me?“. I must have looked pissed because she changed her voice immediately to ‘super friendly’ and said “No, not you. I was talking about another lady who wanted to slap me.“ (Well get in line ‘other’ lady because I was here first!).
I don’t know what I would have done if she had said “Yes, I am talking about you!“, because I am more of a scholar…and not a fighter, but I did what Fonzi (from Happy Days) would have done (I took my comb out, ran it through my greased up pompadour, stuck it back in my leather jacket and snapped my fingers…..all this in my own head… of course). I turned around without letting her even finish her sentence and paid for my purchases and left.
Now, it wouldn’t have taken much for her to have been friendly and helpful and now she is going to have all kinds of bad karma for her actions. I may have some bad karma coming my way for not being a bit more humble and meek….but today…THIS Monday….I am okay with that.
2 comments:
Good girl friend, if you would of used your arresting today, then my bucket list one would of been a 2nd strike for you. Not good!
Damn! I wish I had been there! We could have gotten some frustrations out on that lady!!
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