Work is pissing me off again and it is all about people making a big deal out of nothing at all – and I hate it when people make mountains out of molehills. I got an email at 6:50 am this morning (go back to bed you crazy bastard) in which a client was explaining how a particular issue was of grave concern to him. He needed response by 11:30 or he would have to escalate to some of the executives in our company. He is in a meeting that whole time, but he is unable to extend the deadline. RRAAAAHHH. Oh no, you can’t extend the deadline or you are going to escalate… is that supposed to scare me. It almost makes me want to intentionally wait until after the “deadline” so he does escalate, just to make my day more interesting. Maybe that works for some people but I think I respond much more effectively to something like “ we have this problem, I would appreciate it if you can look into it today as it is important” – how about being nice for once. Why the threats? It really pisses me off. Don’t threaten me with escalating – that means nothing to me. What am I going to get yelled at – not likely, get fired – no chance. Worst is I might get another email saying that I need to do better next time – but even that isn’t probable.
Then there is a second email – responded to another service issue in which we had previously responded with a - we’re sorry, we should have done it differently, we didn’t, we will do better next time – our bad. Now this isn’t the greatest explanation but it was really all we could say. There has been a lot of changes lately and this one was not easily identified. Well the client came back and said that that isn’t good enough, they realize we’re sorry but it was a really big deal (even though it wasn’t) and we look bad to there executives – but then they add nothing about what they would like us to do. So they don’t like our response, and write a page long email about it, but say nothing about what steps they would like to see. Well I hope you had a good time writing that bitchy note because I sure had a good time reading it….idiot. What they hell do I say back. I can’t say I’m sorry, I can’t say I will do better next time, I can’t say I should have done it differently. What they hell do I say?
Then a third note came about how two project were done incorrectly. This note came after I sent this client an email 12 days ago saying that I wanted to talk about these projects as I knew they were off track little. But I got no response, so I sent another email Monday, got no response - they complained to one of our other staff yesterday and it came back to me, so I phoned, left a voice mail, no response… then I get this email this morning saying that we haven’t addressed this. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I WAS TRYING TO DO!!! GRRR.
I need to go for a walk.
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7 comments:
Its pretty amazing that Customers at that level of business are the same as retail customers. I really truly think that most customers dont know what the hell they really want, but if they feel that something isnt happening they way they want it to they bitch. But usually thats all they do, bitch. They never say what they want to happen. I get a kick out of asking pissed off customers "what would you like me to do about this?" and then shoot down all of their outlandish requests.
I agree with your reaction to the "escalation threat". It that supposed to make us crap our pants, then kneel down and kiss their ass?
Your blog makes me angry, angry at customers.
I would also concur with that enraged synopsis. People often just want to bitch. If they bitch to you, they think you'll do better next time, or at least now you're aware of the situation. People are dumb.
I like to think that I would do better just because I like to offer a high level of service. If they're bitchy in a rude way, than I a less likely to go the extra mile for them.
I'm sort of spiteful in that way.
Love it, love all of it. Let's all quit and pool our money together to build a massive tree house. We could hang out all day, with a mini fridge full of Coca Cola and a cabinet full of Whiskey. We could have a rope ladder and a pole for quick exits in order to get more Coca Cola and Whiskey. Love it!
I think you are on to something mf. We should just start our own cult. And in this cult we all give our money and worldly possessions to the leader and then hang out in a tree house all day with coke and whiskey. Of course everyone needs their favorite type of whiskey as not everyone likes CR. I'm up for that. Maybe we should just try it for a weekend this summer, I know a guy with a cabin.
And we could have monkey butlers, every night the monkey butlers will regale us with stories. Sweet.
I'm absolutley on board. A New World Order.
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