A Mother’s Take on Customer Service
As a mother, my primary job is customer service. My “customers” may be hormonal teens, tenacious toddlers, or anything in between, but they’re my customers nonetheless. The key difference between them and the folks at Walmart or the fast-food drive-thru cashier? I’m not paid in any currency—except love, of course, though even that can depend on their behavior.
If paid employees are there to “serve” me, why do they so often fail at their jobs? Why is it so hard to get genuine assistance, and whatever happened to “please” and “thank you”? Not long ago, a drive-thru “princess” botched my fast-food order, teaching me never to leave without checking the bag’s contents. Then, she had the audacity to ask, “Do you want your change?” I stared, dumbfounded, as if she’d sprouted horns, and extended my hand for my 11 cents. It was mine, not hers. Good customer service would’ve offered a coupon for free fries or a milkshake after such a fiasco, especially considering the time it cost me—enough to have enjoyed a sit-down meal with my family.
Time, Respect, and Common Sense
Time is my most valuable commodity, the currency I spend on my kids. So why do people with titles like DDS or PhD assume their time is worth more than mine? Our pediatrician refuses to see me if I’m 15 minutes late but thinks nothing of making me wait 63 minutes when I arrive 15 minutes early. If you offer appointments, honor them—whether you’re a doctor or a car dealership. If you can’t stay on schedule, take a lesson from a mother of four who relies on one to stay sane.
That waiting room sign claiming, “You’re only waiting so the doctor can provide the best care,” is nonsense. The truth? They double- or triple-book appointments, banking on no-shows to meet financial quotas and pay off degrees.
Customer service also isn’t knocking a mere 10% off my hotel room when I find a dead parakeet between the beds, an opened can of bean dip under the table, and a mysterious stain on the sheets I’m paying to sleep on. I shouldn’t need to bring Clorox wipes and Lysol, and I deserve more than a partially discounted room. Charging for pool towels or extra pillows? Ridiculous. Just because you’re the only hotel within 50 miles doesn’t justify such neglect. (Also, why do sketchy hotels use white sheets? Wouldn’t darker ones hide their lack of cleanliness?)
To the young man at the home improvement store, whose sole job is to assist with heavy loads, don’t ask me—towing five kids—if I need help loading an entire pallet of laminate flooring, especially with that hopeful look that I’ll say no so you can keep texting. Your muscles are useless without a brain to back them up. Load my stuff!
Then there are cashiers who freeze when an item won’t scan, as if they’ve been asked a million-dollar question on a game show. Isn’t there a protocol for this? Why should I, the customer, trek through the store to fetch another item?
The bottom line: customer service today is abysmal. If I treated my kids the way some employees treat me, society would be in trouble. Perhaps unemployment is high because people don’t know how to work or care beyond their paycheck. My advice? If you’re there, do your job and do it well. You never know who’s watching or what opportunities might come from going the extra mile—or at least taking one small step. Earn the customer’s business. And remember, this housewife in yoga pants and a stained t-shirt, juggling four kids and a minivan, is paying your salary. Show some respect.
One Response
Thank you for this, it’s all true. I will add that these are the same people yelling that they *DESERVE* a “living wage” for filling those fast food bags with the wrong thing and most could not count back change from a dollar (in their heads) if their lives depended on it! There is no more pride in doing the best they can, they act as though you are inconveniencing them should you expect them to do their simple “unskilled labor” job. Don’t get me started on trying to call banks about simple problems or “gulp” call Comcast for any issue, getting transferred over and over again, you will want to blow your brains out by the time you get off the phone, in many cases WITHOUT your problem being solved! The level of apathy & ignorance is everywhere, and it seems to be spreading. The medical community I could write a small novel on my experiences with them and being an advocate for my mother with dementia if she needs to go to the hospital. I no longer understand the world we are living in because there is such a lack of caring, trying to do your best and good old common sense!
To your closing remarks I say, I once received a 100 dollar tip for simply taking 5 minutes to help someone find where to purchase something we did not offer as a business. No joke. He came down to my place of work after phoning me asking if we sold something, I told him I would look into who did sell it locally, found the info, called him back with that info ( not expecting anything for just steering him in the right direction) and he drove down to simply say, “Thank you” and give me a 100 dollars!
What I took from that was, people who are actually willing to help out their fellow humans when there is no financial incentive to do so, is like spying a unicorn in the forest these days! Saddest part is I am simply living by “The Golden Rule.”