What goes around comes around

Remember how I was grumbling about bad service at Muji? I got a taste of my own medicine, and on my birthday as well. What luck! What a thing to get for a birthday 'present'.

I do not usually go on customer service counter that often. Most of the time, I am stationed at the advisory counter. For the last few days though, branch was short of staff and I was roped in to man the counter on my own.

I would say lots of interesting things happened and turns out, not so nice things happened too. There was this old man who, either genuinely or purposely, could not find the books that he wants and was insisting that I find it for him immediately. Then our online catalogue was down and I could not find the exact call number for him. I told him to be patient but he kind of expected me to give him a miracle.

There was a queue forming and so, I told him to please go browse at other books first and I would help him later. Next in line was this lady, who knew that she could scan her card at this machine to check the due dates of the books she borrowed but just decided that she wanted to check the books one by one.

I was getting a little agitated. For one, I did not like people who were not self-reliant (I know I should not be like that but at that point of time, I could not help it). Secondly, while I was serving her, someone cut in to tell me that there was no power supply in the powerpoint outlets and they could not charge their laptops.

According to this female patron, I started shaking my head and I slammed down her books which was bad customer service. She wrote in to complain against me. Said I was rude and that I should be trained to handle stress with a smile etc, etc. Oh, and she had to stress that she was a trainer in customer service.

SO WHAT???

If she was a trainer then she should be even more aware of how to be good customer. She jolly well knew that she could check the machine (for she apologised and mumbled that she knew she could check from the machine before requesting me to check).

She should even be more empathetic towards customer service officers who may be overworked (can't say if we are underpayed. Depends on company I guess).

I mean I give a piece of my mind and although I often 'threaten' (to my friends only. Not even to the service provider) to write in, I rarely do.

I think that Singaporeans (including myself...sometimes) are too obnoxious and not gracious enough as customers. From the point of view of the service provider and a customer myself, I think these things go both ways.

If you think "Customers are King", I think customers are king of giving you bullshit. Myself as a customer included.

P/S: I make no excuses for myself as I do admit that sometimes I can be a lousy customer too. Depending on sitaution though, it could be that the service provider 'provoked' me first.