Walk a mile in our shoes

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Today’s secret shopping blog is from our colleague Jeanette, who has done her share of secret shopping calls and has been mystery shopper a time or two herself.

A couple Sundays ago, we were swamped with people calling in about problems at several different storage locations. The gate was out of order, the office had inexplicably closed early, units were flooding- just to name a few of the issues we were being called about.

I compassionately and earnestly attempted to resolve these issues, and when unable to expressed my sympathy and concren. I offered whatever assistance I was able to and attempted to commence our conversation.

The call should have stopped at this point. However, as is expressed in the clich, “give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile”, my regards only seemed to perpetuate the conversation and encourage complaining.

What frusterates me is that there are issues that we, at the call center have no control over. I have had many a caller threaten litigation, demand me to call the managers at home after office hours, I’ve even had a few classy callers curse me out until I hung up!.

Unfortunately, working in this industry there are times we come across people who treat us in a less than human manner. America’s society of instaneous gratification doesn’t help either. If we didn’t answer for these facilities after hours, all the caller would get would be a recorded message. We are people, too and at the very least, deserve respect.

However, some people view those serving them as only having one role: to accommadate their every whim and need. They forget that Joe at K-Mart has a wife and two little boys at home. It doesn’t occur to them that Mary at the storage place left 5 minutes early to get her daughter to soccor practice.

I strongly believe that everyone should work in the service industry at least once in their life, early on, in order to develop a sense of empathy and patience for the people who will be helping them. This would not only ease the burden we bear, but would be a benefit society as a whole

Jeanette

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.