If it was a minimum wage worker, I wouldn't care too much about the service. This was an * owner, whose wife complained he was bad for business, "driving customers away." I suppose as I get older, I do not have the same patience for rude people / behavior, particularly if it's directed at myself or someone close to me who cannot / will not defend themselves.
This is absolutely, positively one of the biggest problems with our society. How you treat someone and how much you care about your work should have NOTHING to do with your pay grade. It's customer service and work ethic.
I agree they should already have GOOD service to begin with, but you should let them know their faults so that other people don't go through the same thing. I also believe in giving someone a second chance. Let them fix their flaws. Point them out. Look, man, if you're in a relationship and someone tells you "Hey, you lazy bum! Cut the grass! You never cut the grass!" but they stick with you because they love you, they're doing you a favor. Like wise, if the business is right everywhere else but in a couple of things they fail, if you point it out, they will thank you for it and possibly even reward you. If they don't thank you for it and think you're just being an ahole, then that's their fault.
B.S. I worked one of these jobs when I was saving money to start college. I busted my ass, took extra shifts, did the best job I could possibly do - and it never - never - had any impact at all on my paycheck. I never got extra consideration, never got a raise based on my work ethic (the only pay-raises these places give are based on simply showing up, and they're meager and meaningless raises) - never got any added benefits, NOTHING. Meanwhile, the regional managers are driving around in BMWs and going on vacations and talking about how great it is that I worked on Christmas, and New Year's, and so on ... but no pay raise, no extra time off, nothing. The manager of the store, the one who actually worked there, always regretted it but told me directly that he could not offer incentives based on performance via company guidelines. Essentially, I reached the point where I simply thought that they could all **** off. There are a lot of people out there who take these jobs, who work hard, who show up every day, and who can still barely afford to pay their rent, can't afford health insurance, and have no real prospects of their job ever offering them any real security. The world of minimum-wage work is so strongly slanted towards employers and against employees that the companies that have fleets of minimum-wage workers know that they never have to offer anything substantial to their employees because there's a massive labor pool, unionization is barred, and they have reams of applications to replace someone the second they lose an employee. One can harp on about work ethic all one cares too, but if you want to look for the real source of crappy customer service then look at the corporations who keep wages artificially low in order to keep their CEOs and shareholders and regional/district managers driving around in BMWs and taking extended vacations and enjoying full health benefits - they know that, ultimately, customer service doesn't count for **** when they don't have any competition in the area.
See, it's wrong to punish a customer for the companies issues. I worked for years in fast food (Dominos) at two different stores under lousy, crappy owners/managers. They were rude. Got paid minimum wage. Offered no raises and used guilt to get much of what they wanted. But I worked hard and I never treated the customers poorly unless it was deserved. I believe in the motto that, "The customer is right..." up until ,"They're wrong." Some people are just stupid and you can't help but get ugly to make a point. But as rare as that occurred, I smiled at every customer as grumpy as they may have been. Was more than polite on the phone, and told everyone thank you. It was my job to help the customer and helping the customer with a smile is not as hard as some make it out to be.
I see some support calls where I work. Things concerning my area, such as email deliverability sometimes wind up on my lap. Basically, if you get to me I already hate you. Now customer service isn't my job, so deal with it, but ya - good luck if you get a jerk like me.
I see your POV, but if you're going to do something, do it RIGHT. If you don't like it, get the hell out.
You're telling the thadeus to get over the nature of minimum wage work in America yet you're b****ing about the same thing, just from the perspective of a customer. You're chastising him for wanting minimum wage work to be improved yet you're wanting the same thing but in a way that benefits you.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that. What I meant to imply was...If you're going to do something, give it your all, regardless of your station. Have a good attitude if you're going to do it, because you're there anyway and might as well have fun. As for all of the 'managers had it good, we sucked balls for them' rhetoric...Take a lesson from that. A good from a perceived bad. Work towards a job like 'they' had or work hard until you can leave and do something else. Hence the 'get the hell out' part. Or just quit if you have the means and do something that makes you happy. The 'nature' of any work - minimum wage or otherwise - is what you make of it. If you want to prescribe to the ideal of you only give a **** according to how much you get paid relative to what you think wealthy is, then go for it.
"You get what you pay for . . . " The company pays for crap . . .crap is what their customers get. They will tell you . . well . . . that is how they keep prices low. By screwing the minimal Wage Slave nothing. You happy with the price but not the service. . . . .well . . YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR Rocket River
If I have a bad experience at a restaurant, I make a point to tell the manager. If no one tells them, then they never know. There is a restaurant near our home (Green Mill) that we like and frequent often. We stopped at one of them in the Kansas City area and got terrible service. I let them know why we left before we got our food and then made a follow-up call to their corporate headquarters. They provided us with a $50 gift card which we used at the one near our home. If I receive the wrong order from a fast food place, I make a call to let them know. They generally send $5 - $10 worth of gift cards.
I worked in a customer service booth at Randall's during high school for a decent wage (really good for a HS student really, so I can't complain), but some of the **** we had to deal with... amazed me. It really makes you lose faith in the general public's sanity. Later, during college up until a year ago, I worked for a print service as a CSR and it was 100% less stressful. It's amazing how much difference there is in dealing with customer's in a grocery store compared to dealing with customer's from an actual business. Dealing with the general people vs. dealing with other people who are also working just seems like night and day to me.
