Daily Lessons from Life 07 May 2014 - 'I am the customer, I have the right to call you stupid'

"'I am the customer, I have the right to call you stupid' - The Straits Times  May 06, 2014

Upon hearing that he could not pay for his purchases with an unsigned credit card, a customer at OG department store started swearing and called the staff "stupid".

When they tried to placate him, he retorted: "I am the customer, I have the right to call you stupid."

He later relented and paid cash, says an OG spokesman. "Perhaps the customer felt he was superior," he adds.

Staff usually try to mollify customers who throw his fits - such as threatening to get service staff sacked - while attempting to exchange undergarments, altered clothing and even an unused bag that had been stowed away for two years, says the spokesman.

Labour chief Lim Swee Say called for a "nation of better customers" last week, saying overly demanding customers would aggravate the labour crunch.

A check with 18 F&B and retail outlets here showed that Singaporeans still have some way to go to meet this goal. While they often gripe about bad service, there are just as many examples of ungracious customer behaviour."

It sounded so 'stupid' when that particular customer uttered those words. I wonder if he reflected on the irony after that episode of 'venting his displeasure or anger or embarrassment'.

Lessons for me are:

1. it is not just about being a good customer. It is about being a decent respectful human being. It is not easy to achieve especially when one is very successful, has the money to buy anything and normally treated like king and queen!;

2. as long as the % of 'unreasonable, unbelievably bad-behaving' customers are in the minority, we know that the phenomenon is an isolated one and we need to ring the alarms to much. For those minority, it would be good to understand how many are due to 'difficulties faced by the customers - regardless of some might be the customers' own doing' and tackle them individually or by group of issues. It is my belief that no one go out to shop had the intent to be a 'monster customer and make life difficult or hellish for anyone who serve him or her or them'. At least NOT those sane and ordinary persons!;

3. excellent customer's service skills can help to 'blunt' the impact of a 'difficult customer' for sure. The mind-set of: 'he or she is NOT a difficult customer BUT a Customer with Difficulties' will go a long way to focus on 'finding out what are the DIFFICULTIES this customer faced that made him or her a 'difficult customer'? Like I said: 'no one goes out to shop with the intent of creating a scene and making life hell for another fellow human being.'.

Of course, for those with 'mental issue' or 'inability to manage his or her emotion', these type of customers need more than just excellent customer service skills help. They need psychological and psychiatric professional help. Hopefully these are in the small minority.

Everyone may want to start working on these mind-set change and then apply excellent customer services skills to help a 'difficult customer' turns into a 'happy customer with reason but to heap pleasantry and compliment on the service staffs!