The RUDEness culture
I rude therefore I am, may soon be the motto of the surviving middle class especially the self employed averagely successful business person.
There is total rudeness everywhere, but I'll focus on the type meted out to service providers - waiters, receptionist, air hostess and steward, people that provide services in houses.
There s a total lack of the word PLEASE when talking to anybody we consider below us.
Science from a restaurant I was at ;ast week.
Customer: Give me extra garri now now
Waiter: Do you want extra soup also?
Customer: My friend, are you stupid? Don’t you know how to serve food, rant rant....
On an airline:
Passenger: ssssssss, hey, come here (to the air hostess)
Passenger: Are you not hearing me, come her
(The hostess came over)
Passenger: Find space for my bag, there is no space here
Passenger: Why are you still standing there, is this not your job.....more insults and stuff.
Is the rudeness a result of a brutalized psyche, a way of venting the frustrations of NEPA, wetin u carry?, or just plain inbuilt.
We need to be a little bit more courteous to people that attend to us.
Correct a friend, acquaintance if you see them being rude to people.
There is total rudeness everywhere, but I'll focus on the type meted out to service providers - waiters, receptionist, air hostess and steward, people that provide services in houses.
There s a total lack of the word PLEASE when talking to anybody we consider below us.
Science from a restaurant I was at ;ast week.
Customer: Give me extra garri now now
Waiter: Do you want extra soup also?
Customer: My friend, are you stupid? Don’t you know how to serve food, rant rant....
On an airline:
Passenger: ssssssss, hey, come here (to the air hostess)
Passenger: Are you not hearing me, come her
(The hostess came over)
Passenger: Find space for my bag, there is no space here
Passenger: Why are you still standing there, is this not your job.....more insults and stuff.
Is the rudeness a result of a brutalized psyche, a way of venting the frustrations of NEPA, wetin u carry?, or just plain inbuilt.
We need to be a little bit more courteous to people that attend to us.
Correct a friend, acquaintance if you see them being rude to people.
posted by inyang effiong at 9:14 AM
7 Comments:
Thank you o! I have worked in several internet cafes, and still do. When it comes to this particular issue you have raised, I can give you more than a 100 cases. I have had to endure the brunt of customers who think I am lower than them because they pay me money to use our internet link/computer. There have been instances when I have been beaten, and had to fight back. Geez, even more terrible ones happen in a commercial bus on the streets of Lagos.
If you ask me, I think it is due to so many factors. The issue that the economy has made everyone a walking bomb (like the al-Qaeida in Iraq), the stupid "customer-is-always-right" syndrome, etc. Nigerians need to change their attitude. Finito!
I believe that the customer is always right. Your job as a customer service person is to represent your employer in the best possible light, and this may include taking insults depending on the class of the customer. It is the duty of your manager to make sure you are adequately compensated for this service. This is where the real problem lies.
Have you noticed that owners hardly ever complain about customers, and they tend to be courteous to them? Because he knows that after taking the 'insult' the money comes into his pocket! Maybe customer service people need to be rewarded on a similar basis!
Seun Osewa said...
I believe that the customer is always right.
No really. The customer being right does not equate with the customer having the right to be rude! A rude customer gets sub par service.
Service personnel that are abused get shell-shocked on the job and do not performed well. Its in the interest of the business owner to stop service personel abuse.
Its the duty of the employer to provide a good and abuse free working environment for staff.
The use of the word "always" in any sentence is usually wrong; I should have qualified my statement.
The idea that the customer is 'always right' is just an attitude. It means I set out to exceed my customer's expectations. I go out of my way to make sure my customer is happy, and the customer reciprocates by telling everybody about my service!
I cannot imagine someone walking into a Mr. Biggs outlet and being rude. The way they greet you before you even step in, even when you are a young person, makes your head swell a little and you are happy to part with your money!
I don't think it is right for customers to be rude, but what I find in my daily life is that it is usually the customer service person doesn't do enough to please me as a customer. They don't make me feel happy to part with my money. They feel they are doing me a favor my serving me.
Well as a customer I feel it is not my fault that they are not being paid enough to be happy to do their job! Anytime I deal directly with the owner of an establishment, I feel I get wonderful service. So why don't I feel satisfied when I deal with the employees?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not disputing your blog post. I'm just trying to say that maybe a bigger problem is that customer service people don't really know what their job is about. And I don't blame them either; nobody trained them and they are not paid enough to be motivated to learn.
Seun, you r definitely not disrupting the post. Rather adding value.
I do mount campaigns all the way to the highest authoriy when/if I get bad service. But I see good service as having two components: A good customer services system and a a good customer. I am looking at the customer side of things here.
Please carry on with ur comments. I am not a politician that wants to hear only 'Oga ur doing a wonderful job, dont mind your enemies!'
Like begets like.
behaviour begets behaviour... the first lesson in good customer relations. I beleive that if the customer behaves badly the 'server' should act politely, this, from experience, tends to disarm the rude customer.... dont forget there are exceptions to every rule.
This is oh so true - even here in the UK!
Post a Comment
<< Home