The motto "manners maketh man" is from a family hierloom of mine (a decorative cheeseboard) which have always struck a chord with me. Manners are for free but certainly working in London has taught me that these values haven't been installed in everyone.
London is a tough environment where it is hard to keep up a positive demeanor. For starters, try smiling at someone on a tube/train. The resting bitch face (RBF) response is almost comedic... Almost but more than anything it's disheartening. I'm not sure how this London standard have become the normal but it took moving out to Kent to realise that this isn't a nationwide standard. Hold a door open in London and you could well be standing there for sometime without perhaps a single thanks (I have experienced this on a number of occasions). In London, especially when I'm on the move I take on another persona these days and it's not particularly one I like. My response to rudeness in the face of my manner is not usually loud "you're welcome" (one day this knee jerk reaction may get me injured so I would not recommend others to take on this stance) which in itself makes me ill mannered. If I held true to my manners I would silently take rude ignorance and move on... But how can I when it's a daily occurance? Come on london! Bring back manners.
I've got off topic. On a personal level individuals without manners is bad enough but when you experience a lack of manners from a customer service representative for a business it's most certainly unacceptable on so many levels. I am the worse twitterer in that I use it mainly for two things being complaining (about trains, product issues and rubbish customer service) and complimenting (for great customer service or if I love some new product or range or song/artist). I've added to my tweets recently with the addition of this blog but really I signed up with twitter to complain. There! I said it... I have twitter to moan. On the past two weeks I've contacted four companies on twitter and another smaller company on email. From this I've had three good customer service experiences, one unsatisfied experience and one which angered me further.
Primark I contacted over a product which could potentially harm others. Thier immediate response to my tweet was to ask me to direct message with my email address they then emailed soon after asking for more detail. They have asked for a receipt copy which I can only assume is for a refund which really wasn't the point of my tweet. Point being from this experience is that they took note, responded quickly and professionally ensuring company image is represented in a polite (well mannered) fashion. As a customer it's nice to know that they take note of my negative experience without becoming defensive and are looking into my issue. This is something we expect from a company this size but it's still nice as a customer to know they are listening. Good experience no.1.
Good experience no.2 was with new look. I bought a product, wore it once and then it broke. They were extremely quick to apologise and offer a refund. This was really impressive as I didn't expect a refund considering the product was bought some time ago (even if it wasn't worn til August of this year) and I no longer had a receipt. I was very impressed with their twitter team and messaged them to thanks them. The store customer service (Oxford Street branch) wasn't as impressive when stood in front of a sales assistant with RBF while the store manager looked up the product. Overall this was still a positive experience.
Good experience no 3 and the most recent was today with a smaller company called sample beauty. I ordered some samples from them and when they arrived one of the pots had smashed and was covering the other items ordered but of course most importantly I had less of that samples than I wanted. I emailed in this instance as being a smaller company I wasn't sure which company was them. They responded within 10 MINUTES of my email! Super impressive. Thier email tone was friendly but professional and they offered to send a replacement. Job done in few words really.
Onto the not so good but not so bad..as noted in my yesterday blog, I wasn't chuffed with my latest in beauty box. I still stand by them and their product as it's great to be able to choose your product for a month box. What sucks is that first order i received on addition to the choices I made a fair amount of samples. With my most current order I received one other sample. This was disappointing but I was far more disappointed when i queried this with latest in beauty on twitter they admitted that you only get so many samples with the first order. This is misleading and upsetting. I'm not alone in this as I can see other bloggers on twitter are saying they same. So although they answered my tweet quickly and fully the response didn't seem to take note of their customers disappointment and so the query is resolved by a abrupt oh well in a sense.
Now for the negative customer service experience. I emailed and tweeted these folks. I placed my first Avon order on Sunday. I'll be honest that I couldn't remember what delivery I chose (naughty me) but when I emailed to ask when i can expect it the response was a reminder not to chase until I've exceeded the delivery window and a delivery code to search on Hermes. Now I got my required question answered and that isn't up for dispute however if I had been given this Hermes reference earlier o could have checked this myself. Secondly I'm sure it is annoying to be queried over orders which are enroute to the customer and within the delivery window, however if you are working in customer services I'm sure this is a common question and you should have a better prepared and politer response. I tweeted to say as much and have heard nothing back. This is just as disappointing considering the size of the business.
As a customer I want to know that my opinions and queries and respected and noted. Do I expect an apology for all my complaints and questions? NO. I expect a response which shows respect however as a paying customer and that even if there isn't a resolution they will note this for the future.
An acquaintance i once knew in customer services once said it's always "arsehole Friday" as for some reason returns and complaints often come in a friday. I hope I'm not one of those as I always try and phrase my queries and complaints in a polite but factual manner HOWEVER if you are rude to me you better expect a snappy response.
Reader (or readers if there are more of you out there) always remember that behind a computer or phone is an individual. Don't hold them accountable entirely responsible for issues you are having. However customer service folks out there, remember you represent a business (even if it's your own) so anything you say will make a business look good or bad. EVERYONE please remember manners are noted when used and it's a free kindness which isn't as used as much as they once were/should be.
PEACE OUT ☮️🕊️
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