Buondì.
Running an online business – actually now businesses – for ten years has taught me at least one thing – always be nice to customer service staff!
Or at least try. Sometimes it’s hard when you’re ‘not pleased’, I accept that.
I’m particularly prone to losing my temper, so when a supplier utterly messes something up, my natural response is rage, or at least bitter sarcasm.
Having been on the other end, though, I now work hard to be pleasant when I NEED HELP, if not always when providing it.
It’s the obvious strategy, it’s better for my stress levels, it helps avoid pointless arguments, and it might even generate good karma.
So worth a try. And I can tell you from personal experience of doing support for, for instance, the ebooks store, that polite, friendly, apologetic-for-wasting-my-time people get my attention, and timely help with their problem (it usually is THEIR problem…)
Whereas rude people, especially rude people who use the formula “Do this or give me my money back!”, just wind me up, so inducing me to be uncooperative.
Doing ‘support’ has the potential to put me in a bad mood for the whole day, given that one of the morning’s first jobs, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, is to deal with emails that have come in during Europe’s night (evening in the USA, then morning in Australasia). And that replies to my replies will happen hours later, for the same reason, so dragging things out.
Who wants to open their emails every morning and read abuse? Certainly not me.
Unfortunately, someone has to, and given the state of the world (design faults with Apple products, and their users), I’m the obvious candidate, and the cheapest.
Here’s a question for you – on average, in your life experience, just how good is customer service, usually?
Personally, I know some great organisations (actually, just one, the British bank First Direct) but most of my experiences as a customer have been on the negative side, or at best, just about good enough.
And you know why companies and public sector bodies are generally bad at offering support?
It isn’t necessarily because they don’t care, or even that they can’t be bothered. After all, if offering friendly and effective support were easy and cheap, everyone would probably do it.
More likely the reason is because the necessary resources are not allocated, so staff are poorly–trained and/or disempowered.
Or worse, that there are no real people involved, just ‘help’ articles, AI bots, and confusing telephone answering systems that waste your time then cut you off at the critical moment, making you want to spit!
Some organisations don’t offer any way to contact them at all, so forcing users to go online and leave one-star reviews at places like Trustpilot.com.
Check out what people think, for instance, about Europe’s largest budget airline, Ryanair. Actually, I recently left them a five-star review (no, really), because they were really nice to my wife. And I’m not the only one, it seems. Credit were credit is, occasionally, due.
The world is a complicated place, and seems to get more complicated each day, doesn’t it?
It would be a nicer complicated place, though, if we could all manage to be pleasant when asking for and providing help.
I frequently can’t, but do try. Unless provoked. And then people write back, outraged, and say they’ll report me to my boss. And I reply, “Hah!”
You know what? Instead of answering all emails personally, I could just stop. Disconnect my email accounts, use a ‘no reply’ address for sending, so basically become uncontactable.
Italian companies used to insist you send your complaint in a registered letter, meaning wasting an hour in a queue at the post office and spending five dollars. I could go for something similar – write details of your problem on parchment and have your owl fly it to me at the address on the website, between the hours of 09.30 and 11.00 CET, not Tuesdays.
Should I keep interacting with people? A small minority of whom can be unpleasant. Or automate everything?
I’m wavering.
The middle way is to keep doing support, but cut out any personal aspect of it (so eliminating any need to get annoyed) by using standard replies, fixed phrases, and links to help articles – go solve your own problem!
Or maybe I should just remind myself more often, and more forcibly, to be NICE!
Anyway, enough lamenting the state of modern manners. You’ll find today’s FREE article in our thirty-part Summer Series here:
Episodio 11. La disfatta di Caporetto (1917)
Never heard of Caporetto? Neither had I, which is embarassing as I majored in modern history.
It was Italy’s worst ever military defeat, apparently – I resist making snide comments along the lines of ‘well it must have been really terrible!’
Episodio 11. La disfatta di Caporetto (1917)
(The first ten episodes in this series can be found on our History page. Scroll right down to the end to find them.)
A venerdì.
P.S. Don’t miss the half-price eBook of the Week!
Don’t forget this week’s ‘Half-price eBook of the Week’ offer, Vita in trincea, which is on the same theme as the most recent Summer Series articles.
The level is B1/B2 (intermediate/upper-intermediate) and the ebook comes in .pdf format (the default download), with .epub & .mobi formats available on request at no extra charge.
Tra il 1915 e il 1917, durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale, l’esercito italiano e quello austriaco si scontrano nella zona montana delle Alpi Carniche, vicino al fiume Isonzo. I militari italiani, reclutati in tutta Italia, vengono mandati al fronte.
“La terra delle montagne, qui, ha un odore strano, una puzza terribile a dire la verità. Non è come a casa” dice Rino a suo fratello Felice a bassa voce, mentre il rumore di molti stivali come i loro marca il ritmo della marcia. “Ancora pochi minuti e arriviamo alla trincea, accelerate il passo!” comanda un ufficiale che cammina poco avanti a loro.
Gli stivali sono scomodi, con il fondo di cartone e i chiodi sulla suola sottile. I piedi dei soldati sanguinano dopo le lunghe ore di cammino al freddo sulle Alpi. L’odore, intanto, è sempre più forte. “Questa puzza viene sicuramente dalla trincea” pensa Rino di nuovo. Felice gli stringe un braccio e dice: “Non ce la faccio più, lo giuro. Devo fermarmi un poco” mentre va avanti a fatica. Rino lo incoraggia: “E dai, che stiamo arrivando, resisti!”
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LESLEY TEITELBAUM says
Should I keep interacting with people? A small minority of whom can be unpleasant. Or automate everything?
My answer
You are a rare breed (threatened with extinction) of committed responsible business owner that stands with and behind your products – automating everything – would be a great loss – your customers would lose help and support – customers would lose their personal contact with you always for the better no matter what -everyone wins – you grow as you find new ways to respond with kindness they win because of your humor helpfulness and kindness even if tenges at times with sarcasm – or they grow as a result of being put back in line by your replies
However – if you are so taxed with customer service you are exhausted- overworked and over stressed – unable to enjoy a sense of your own well-being and unable to find emotional balance then everyone loses – so perhaps that middle way you spoke about where frequently asked questions get addressed with standard replies and help articles whereas more complex issues receive personal assistance – and all website material has a please note -I provide all customer service please remember to be respectful and kind – may reduce some burden perhaps
Anyway – is there anyone in training to cover for you in the future- i muse to myself – another reminder to stay calm as your body suffers when in a rage etc. you are appreciated and a treasure to the world and this online italian learning community-please take care – stay calm carry on (with good boundaries) – just giving credit where credit is due – thank you for all your personalized customer service over the years, your sharing of insights and experiences, and good humor – it has made a world of difference
Daniel says
Ciao Lesley
I particularly liked this part of your commment:
“all website material has a please note -I provide all customer service please remember to be respectful and kind”
Magari, as Italians say. The problem is often that people just don’t read. For instance, I get people writing to ask when oh when the paper version of their ebook will arrive… And many more who buy an ebook, press the download button, which doesn’t work because they’ve not taken the time to learn how to use their overpriced Apple device OR read our FAQ, press it again, and again, then get the ‘game over’ error message, so write to me saying how upset they are.
As I replied to someone today, if you click the link three times and got nowhere, then it wouldn’t matter if you could have done it 99 times – you’d still have got nowhere (definition of insanity). The three download limit is there to ensure people pay attention to what they’re doing, and if they don’t, to then write for help (ideally politely, and without threats.)
As regards your other point “is there anyone in training to cover for you in the future?” the answer to that would be that my wife is busy running our school and my kids are busy learning to be a lawyer, a doctor, and a computer scientist, respectively. Good luck to them, I say, so if/when my third stroke lays me low, I’m guessing the articles will stop there and the club will sail on, like a rudderless, crewless ship, until hitting a reef or rusting through and sinking. Won’t be my problem, though.
Felice says
Re: “is there anyone in training to cover for you in the future?”. I fear that the common response for most websites will be to delegate customer service queries to ChatGPT or the like – isn’t that the dream of AI? Unfortunately I suspect we will all learn first-hand how different AI and Human Intelligence really are!
Daniel says
I definitely prefer interacting with a human, even a rude one. There’s always the hope that you’ll be able to convince them to DO SOMETHING TO HELP, even if it’s often a vain one…
jan says
On a positive note, I am thoroughly enjoying the Summer Series. So interesting, and, as you say, who would have known. I most certainly do not get all the Italian, but I am enjoying the challenge. Thank you for providing it, Daniel, and for all the work you undertake on our behalf.
Daniel says
Thanks for the feedback, Jan. Positive, as you say. A good way to start the day!