Customer service can be one of the hardest jobs in the world when you serve certain customers. But it is an important job. American Express says that a happy customer tells nine people about their experience with a company.
However, many crazy customer service stories find their way on to the internet. Sometimes when you put on your pin badges, you don’t know what kind of day you are going to have. But you are not alone! Many people around the world have had bizarre experiences with customers.
Here we have collected the best examples and will talk about some of the weirdest customer service stories ever.
You’re welcome
Occasionally, certain requests made by customers are hard to fulfil. A survey conducted by Badgemaster uncovered an unusual story from someone who was working a wedding, “It was a couple who were getting married. They wanted to arrive on an elephant, and they asked if was acceptable and if we could secure the elephant during the wedding.”
Yes, I’m sure she could have just secured the elephant to the nearest lamppost.
We also found out that some people can be nice, but they can put you in awkward situations, “I gave a bride to be a free shot only for her to whisper that she was pregnant and no-one else knew. It was very awkward to co-ordinate.”
Some customer service stories can be quite scary as one user on Twitter wrote, “The person who tried to punch me through the drive-through window because I told him that we had to charge 25 cents for extra McNuggets sauce.”
And some reviews like this TripAdvisor one can just be overly descriptive about the staff, rather than the food, “Gangsters paradise
“My daughter wanted to go here, and we went last weekend, but will never go again.
“Terrible atmosphere, full of wannabe gangsters, and I include the owner in that description, who was extremely rude to his staff and patronising in front of customers.
“Oh, and the food was very poor.”
Why?
But why do customers get so angry about the littlest things? Some experts think it’s all down to respect. If a customer doesn’t feel like they are being respected, they can become angrier towards staff members because they aren’t receiving the expected treatment.
A study called ‘Discounting humanity: Bargain hunters see customer service workers as less human’ explained why these instances may happen, “I think most consumers, myself included, are guilty of this at some point. When you really drill down, you don’t really recognize that someone is fully human anymore. But it doesn’t take much to be human and to let others know you recognize them as human. Everyone has the right to be considered human.”
Customer Service Heroes
Not all customer service experiences are horrible, there are many pleasant ones too. In America, Chris Hunn and his family stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Florida, and when they checked out, his son forgot his toy giraffe. Chris contacted them and luckilythey had found it. In good humour, the hotel staff took pictures of the toy getting a massage and socialising with other stuffed animals in the hotel to show that he was just having an extended holiday before being reunited with his family.
Some customer service experiences actually change a company. The supermarket Sainsbury’s changed the name of their tiger bread to giraffe bread after three year old Lily Robinson wrote to them (with help from her mum) to say how she though the pattern of the bread looked more like a giraffe than a tiger. Sainsbury’s agreed with her and decided to change the name, and still to this day tiger bread in Sainsbury’s is called giraffe bread thanks to Lily.
Overall, customer service can be a hard job with difficult customers. However, when the mist clears, you can see that some situations are funny and turn into great stories. Additionally, the heart-warming stories that come from customer interactions can genuinely make servers’ days and have the chance to change some company actions for the better.