Being in the food and hospitality business and knowing a bit about customer service, holidays — Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular — can turn into nightmares for servers, sales associates, baristas, bartenders and shoppers.
Those customers who can turn everything from bad to worse are the nightmare which I refer to.
“I ordered a venti, triple soy, caramel macchiato at 200 degrees, no foam with whip. This has foam on it, and I can taste that it’s not at 200 degrees and has no whip.”
Okay, now who else has been in this situation?
As college students most of us are working customer service jobs at minimum wage trying to get by with the little we make, and afford bills and food on a budget.
Does this mean we have to take abuse from irritated and short-tempered shoppers during the Christmas season?
Take into consideration how many customers any given business can get on an average day nearing Christmas. With that I would like to give a few customer etiquette pointers:
- Patience is a virtue. Yes, we are all going to make mistakes whether we put your order wrong, or forgot to ring in the extra 25 percent off. Have a little empathy for the poor girl or boy trying to help. Don’t go off on a rampage for a little mistake.
- Don’t demand ask politely. Nine times out of ten, the employee who is helping is more than willing to get what shoppers are asking for. So don’t go in with an attitude demanding what you want, ask politely and there may be deals or discounts shared.
- Keep in mind prior experiences. Whether working at a high-end office or corporate job or serving a table of ten, we have all had to deal with a disgruntled person at one time or another. Keep this in mind when approaching employees. We’re trying our best.