You Never Know Who You¡¯re Serving when customers turn irate.

I think of myself as a reasonable person. It takes a lot to \rupset me, but upset I am.

A number of years ago, I bought a new television set. I had \rseen a flyer from Lechmere¡¯s that had TV¡¯s on sale. I called, \rgot through the voice mail menu and asked the \rsalesperson who answered, if the particular model \radvertised was available.

No, it wasn¡¯t but another, equally as good was at only $20 \rmore.

I went to the store and examined a number of TV¡¯s. A \rknowledgeable, helpful salesman approached and patiently \ranswered my questions. Finally, I made my choice and paid \rfor it. I asked if they would hold it for me while I did some \rfurther shopping and was told that of course they would.

I was pleased with myself, with the store and with the \rpurchase I¡¯d made.

When I picked up the TV, it was so big, the young man who \rbrought it out to the car had to take it out of the box to get it \rinto my car.

My son brought it into the house for me and started to set it \rup when he asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the antenna?¡±

My first thought was, ¡°Oh no, it was left in the box.¡±

I called the store to check. A young woman answered and \rsaid she¡¯d put me through to the appropriate department. \rThe on-hold music blared uncomfortably. I held the phone \raway from my ear when suddenly I heard the dial tone! I¡¯d \rbeen disconnected. I re-dialed, went through the voice mail \rmenu again, got the same young woman who said she¡¯d \rput me through to ¡°George¡±. The loud music again irritated \rmy ears as I waited and waited and waited for ¡°George¡± to \ranswer the phone. As the minutes ticked by, my irritation \rgrew at a rapidly escalating rate. When he didn¡¯t answer the \rphone, I hung up and re-dialed. Again, I got the voice mail \rmenu (which I now had memorized), punched in the correct \rextension, got the ringing of the phone, interrupted with \rshort bursts of loud music, followed by more ringing which \ralternated with the loud music in my ear over 12 times.

I was now an irate customer. In less than 5 minutes I had \rbeen transformed from a very happy customer, into one of \rthose crazy customers you dread speaking to. When the \rphone was finally answered, I let loose on the poor, \runsuspecting salesperson. I told him that I had been \rdisconnect, put on hold, ignored, gone practically deaf, and I \rwas now VERY angry. He placidly replied, ¡°That¡¯s because \rwe¡¯re busy, Ma¡¯am. We have a lot of customers here today.¡±

¡°I don¡¯t care!¡± I loudly proclaimed ¨C my son, who had walked \rinto the room at that moment, looked at me as though I had \rturned into a stranger in front of his eyes. He is \runaccustomed to seeing me lose my temper.

¡°I am your customer and I am not getting good service.¡± I \rthen explained irately about my missing antenna. He asked \rme what size TV and I told him 27¡±, he said that no 27¡± TV \rcomes with an antenna.

Of course this put me over the top. I went from being an irate \rcustomer to the customer from hell. Why hadn¡¯t I been told?

Furious, I made another trip to the store and asked for the \rmanager who cynically informed me that he was surprised \rto hear a complaint about the TV department. The \rdefensiveness of the manager was the last thing I wanted to \rhear while I was still in a state of anger.

He didn¡¯t do anything to assuage my temper. He told me \rthat everyone today had cable TV, therefore there¡¯s no need \rto include antennas. I told him that I for one don¡¯t have \rcable. I explained it might be a good idea to ask customers \rif they had cable.

He then asked a salesperson to find me an antenna. It \rlooked like two wires attached by a plastic tripod. I asked \rhow effective this would be and was told that it wouldn¡¯t be \rvery effective but a ¡°sound amplified¡± antenna would be what \rI needed.

Bottom line, I ended up paying for a $62.00 antenna.

No discount, no heartfelt apology, no attempt to make me \rfeel that I was an important customer. But, just like most \rcustomers that get less than deserved service I got my \rrevenge. Irate customers tell on average, 10-20 other \rpeople about the bad service they receive. I have already \rtold many audiences and now am sharing this in my \rnewsletter.

I started out as a reasonable customer, I would have \rcheerfully bought the antenna, but because of the chain of \revents, it brought out my evil twin. Not my most flattering nor \rmost comfortable mode of behavior.

Contrast this incident to an experience I had, that Marty at \rthe Hyatt Hotel in Austin, TX handled.

During a stay in that hotel, I was woken up through out my \rfirst night¡¯s stay by an intermittent whooshing noise I \rcouldn¡¯t identify. When I got up the next morning and walked \rinto the bathroom the toilet greet me with the same noise \rthat had annoyed me all night.

I called the front desk who sent an engineer to the room. In \rexplaining the situation and how it had woken me during the \rnight, Marty, the engineer, gave me a pass to the restaurant \rand told me that breakfast was on him. He said, ¡°No one \rshould be woken during the night by a noise.¡±

I have to say that his response was surprising to me. At \rmost hotels I stay at the engineer would have to get \rpermission to give away a meal.

His service attitude made my stay at the Hyatt memorable.

P.S. I told everyone else in attendance at the meeting and \rnow over 1,500 more through my newsletter and since I¡¯m \rposting this on the web, how many more will read it? \rRemember: You never know who you¡¯re serving.

Margo Chevers, author of the books STOP the BS (bad \rservice), What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? \rand How to Get Up on a Down Day has been providing \rsales and customer service seminars and consulting to a \rdiverse cross-section of industries for the past 15 years. To \rreceive her free 10 top tips for exceptional customer service, \rcall (800) 858-0797 or email margo@margochevers.com.