moneycentral.msn.com — Many companies today are deciding some of their customers simply aren?t worth the trouble. That?s why many corporations, aided by massive computer databases of customers? shopping habits, try to separate their profitable from their unprofitable customers. here are some examples of how they treat ?bad? customers differently.
Jun 26, 2006 View in Crawl 4
vaheenamanJun 26, 2006
Murdats,Even if the person is yelling it easy to calm them down- that's your job as a CSR. Getting offended by their behavior is... simple? Immature? As a customer I find that today I have to manage the feelings of prima dona CSRs- I've essentially got to fawn over them or they get their feelings hurt- what I had to do to customers when I was a CSR. After all the crap I took over the years- per my job description -It makes me, literally, want to slap them in their pouting faces.
h0kiezJun 26, 2006
I agree with the boycot concept, but remember that buying something that they're taking a loss on is at least as bad if not worse for a place that you despise than merely boycotting them. To me, the "boycot" concept should be applied with exceptions. For example, on many deal sites, people hate Best Buy (myself included), but that doesn't mean I don't pick up deals there. It only means I don't do my incidental shopping there (for things that I actually need and will pay retail for if I must). Many people will buy from Staples, for instance, because they tend to treat people well and be reasonable on customer service issues.
Closed AccountJun 26, 2006
Same thing as firing a customer.Not all customers are worth it for the final amount. The smartest thing a business can do is fire a client. Particularly if they are gonna cost so much time at the expense of other customers. Those clients that call 90 times a day with trivial matters etc. Fire them. Now being a jerk if you are a customer will pretty much get you a lower class of service, pretty obvious
dangermouse9Jun 26, 2006
@steaminx "There are no such things as bad customers, only bad businesses. The customer is always right.""The customer is always an assh**e." - Mallrats
abentonJun 26, 2006
I didnt mean to post this twice, digg was acting strange earlier
Closed AccountJun 26, 2006
One small problem I have with your list of Bad Behavior. Forcing stores with "lowest Prcie" guarantees to honor their guarantee is not bad behavior. If the store guarnteed it they should expect to honor it. Thta's what a guarantee is. If stores can just say it has a guaranteed lowest price and then not honor it when it turns out not to be then the word "guarantee" no longer has any real meaning and it becomes just another marketing scam word. Customers expecting this are not bad customers.Another thing... stores building databases to track customers purchases and shopping habits sell their info to other companies. This is a violation of a customers privacy. If they want to study the data for themselves then fine. But I for one don't want companies I have never shopped at filling my email account and mail box with junk I'm just going to trash. Spam is still rampant and junk mail is still alive.
magstheaxeJun 26, 2006
Just like the old saying goes, "You get more flies with honey that you do with vinegar".Once, when I worked on the phone in Customer Service, I asked a customer who'd just ripped me a new one "Would you please explain to me why I should help you after the way you just talked to me?" It totally floored her--she sputtered for about a minute before apologizing.
magstheaxeJun 26, 2006
Still, I tend to side with: The customer is always right! It's the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. If only more consumers knew about their powers, they could get a lot more for their bucks."It's certainly within the consumers's powers to be polite. It doesn't matter how right you are: if you act like an asshat, no one will agree with you or help you.
kallahanJun 27, 2006
You are not as bad a customer as you think, chances are the retail join is losing more money having discoed stuff on the shelf taking up valuable space (something Radio Shack doesnt seem to get) than it would selling it to you at a loss. I like people like you, so do most retail stores.Sorry about the lack of apostrophies, damn firefox bug.
Closed AccountJun 27, 2006
This is the wrong take on the subject. Bad customers is not the issue; what IS THE ISSUE is how good customers are treated like dirt by the ones selling their wares.Here in FL, I especially hate the local yahoos who think they are God's gift to free enterprise. 90% of folks never do what they pledge and have no problem NOT CALLING you about it. As of two weeks ago, I was 100% anti-ILLEGAL immigrant. HOWEVER, after experiencing trying to do a friend a favor by hiring his 16-year old rookie son to do a simple yard work job (12-15 hours), in which he quit half way through the job claiming that $10/hour wasn't enough money for using MY GAS AND MY EQUIPMENT, I say BRING ON THE IMMIGRANTS. These Gen x-ers are one sorry, sorry lot of humans.Having said that, I still find the best places to do business is the local mom & pop shops who have been in business 15 years or more. You will pay a premium for things, but it is FAR, FAR better than having to climb into the gutter and scurry around with the likes of Wal*Mart's customer base.From there, the bigger the enterprise, the worse it gets (as all of us know).