Customer Service

By Kelly Bridgewater

Have you ever worked in a job in Customer Service?

I started a job at Meijer where I bagged groceries and brought the shopping carts back to the store. Then I was moved to being a cashier.

Easy.

Really did not have a lot of angry people.

Maybe once in a while something would ring up wrong. We had a certain percentage of the product that we could change without seeking managerial assistance.

I was a Customer Service Manager at a Bookstore.

Really never dealt with anyone that became upset.

Then I went to Fast food because I was newly married with a son, and my husband did not have a job. I worked for two years there.

Not bad, but there were some customers that you knew were lying to get free food. Who orders 3 Grande combos, which consisted of 10 tacos and a Mexican Pizza, and we screwed it up? We would have remembered an order that big.

The job was not awful. I was the Assistance Manager. I just didn’t like people lying to get free food ALL THE TIME. One family came in every week with the same complaint. Higher-ups said to just keep making the food for them. Must be nice to have FREE food all the time. I don’t think they ever bought anything ever.

Now I currently work in a call center, at least it feels like one, for Financial Aid complaints at a local University.

Entitlement runs rampant.

Parents did not plan to send their students to college, so they saved no money. Parents send their students out of state, so it costs more. Parents do not want to take out a loan. They’ll send their kid all the way across the country to attend college and have no idea or care if their bill will be paid. Students and parents do not do their homework and look for scholarships.

I have been yelled at because we do not offer more FREE money. Does not want to burden their student or themselves with loans.

Get that.

Then the child needs to wait a couple of years to attend college, work, save money, so they can pay for college up front.

Maybe attend a community college close to home to get the Basis aka Foundational classes out of the way, then return to the “Big” university.

I have been told that my university begged him to come, so the school should be covering his bill. Talk to Admissions. We don’t beg students to come.

Now there are videos where waitress and waiters want a minimum of twenty percent tip when you go to a restaurant.

No!!!!!

Not from me.

I pay enough for the food.

If I plan to go out to eat, I am not paying extra for your tip. Most tips are lucky to be ten percent. I will NEVER go above that.

If you do not like that, then find a new job.

I know inflation is high.

I don’t work for much money either, and I have a BS and a MA degree.

Still not a reason to tip twenty percent or feel entitled and treat the person working in Customer Service like trash.

We are working to pay our bills just like you do.

Something to keep in mind next time you go anywhere.

EVERYONE, NO MATTER THEIR POSITION, DESERVES RESPECT.