I speak to patients most of day and hear some pretty interesting things. Truth be told, there is a little bubble floating above my head with laugh out loud captions ranging from “Seriously?!” to “Oh My God! Somebody just shoot me”.
In the meanwhile, I am forced to listen to meaningless chatter about how they dialed this number and no one answered or how they can never get an appointment, et cetera, et cetera.
Life as a customer service representative/administrative assistant/office manager/Jill of all trades is not easy and yesterday was no different and before I knew it a seemingly routine call went off kilter very quickly.
The call went a little something like this…..
Me: Thank you for calling XYZ Dental. How may I help you?
Patient: Yes, I would like to schedule an appointment.
Me: Yes, Sir. May I have your first and last name?
Patient: Mr. Tabu I’llMakeMyProblemsYours
Me: Sir, could you please spell your last name?
Patient: Could you please stop talking and let me speak? That’s what
I’m talking about the bureaucracy of dealing with you people.
At this point, I’m looking at the phone in total shock and thinking what bureaucracy? I just asked you to spell your last name. He flipped out for no reason and I was only trying to obtain the correct spelling of his name so that I could further assist him.
I handed the patient off to my boss so he could concur with the patient that there was a great deal of “bureaucracy” involved in dealing with our company and he could have whatever he wanted.
The last time I spoke to him the conversation was not pleasant and I had to involve my boss as well. After bending the rules and scheduling an appointment for him he didn’t even show up for his appointment, but then it’s our problem when he experiences difficulty obtaining another. People like him like to talk loud and fast with the hope of intimidating the representative.
An encounter like this can really put a damper on your day. But don’t let it get you down. If you take it personal when someone like this guy takes out his frustrations on you, the immediate response may not be customer centric.
If what happened to me happens to you, simply bite your lip and attempt to appease the customer. Remember the customer is always right in the eyes of your superiors.