It's official, a new report out has concluded that customers are 74% ruder than they were in the 1990's.
That leads me to wonder why, I still work in cosmetics, when there are jobs out there that require you to state the bloody obvious for a living. But it is reassuring to know that customer rudeness is now a statistical fact. Weighed and measured , you have been found wanting customers!
(Well, all accept our very nice, reasonable and extremely polite customers.)
However, the rest of you should pull your fingers out!
It doesn't hurt to say, please. It certainly never killed anyone to say, excuse me. It may have hurt that customers toe the other day, when she tried to force her way into the lift, before she allowed me out. (Cosmetics consultants have lead lined court shoes for just such occasions.) But on the whole, politeness never hurt anyone.
And it was a certain lack of manners over the telephone that lead to this subject. People call us on the phone all the time. Mostly it is people just trying to talk to someone, occasionally it is a lascivious consultant angling for an alibi, but a good percentage are just patience shredding, time wasters. So when a customer calls with more than just a random....,
'You know your pink nail polish, how pink is it?'
.........and actually wants to order. You would think that they would treat us with the same courtesy, as they would if they were in the store. Not so.
Apparently, we don't answer the phone quick enough. Apparently, it is alright to tut repeatedly at the consultant because they have to check if an item is actually in and apparently, it is alright to throw down the telephone when asked to wait for a second .
Well, when we called the lady in question back, that shocked her, she didn't think we could do that.
So, if you think rude customers are the ones you see face to face, think again.
