You are completing your purchase, signing your receipt or collecting change, when you are handed an eighteen inch receipt and it is mentioned to you by the clerk that "if you were to simply visit a website and take a quick survey and give us an excellent or give us the highest score possible than you might win a shopping spree or a year supply of toilet paper or a million dollars.
Today's consumer is more informed than ever before. Business has been reinvented entirely over the last twenty years. Companies are always trying to gain a competitive edge, that part has not changed. Anyone that has worked retail before, knows that it isn't always as simple as right and wrong. You always have consumers with unreasonable expectations. Demanding that they be compensated for any ridiculous inconvenience that they may have suffered. Most people are understanding and if they aren't then some are patient enough to overlook whatever small complaint they have.
How does this all connect? Customers are bit more brave when emailing their complaints. I recently received a complaint on my performance. I know most of your jaws just hit the floor. This customer said I spoke to him in a "cold monotone voice." I wasn't even involved in this customer's transaction, I just happened to pick up the phone when he called to gripe two weeks later. The only thing that I told him that might have been cold was the truth and you all know it wasn't in a "monotone" fashion.
I can't help if a program changes and your deal would have been a bit sweeter if you would have waited two weeks. The deal is done and by the same token if it would have been altered to negatively effect your deal you wouldn't come back to the dealer and say, "I know the rebate went away that I took advantage of two weeks ago so do you want me to give you an additional $500 to make up for it?
When you give someone your word or come to an agreement with a business then you should own up to it. Is it right that the same shirt you bought six weeks ago for $35is now $12, I don't know maybe the question should be "What the hell were you spending $35 on a shirt for?" Maybe your neighbor spent less on his deck than you did with the same company, if you didn't think it was a good deal, then as an adult you HAD the right to NOT take advantage of it. Once you commit, shake hands and write a check it should be end of story. If you want to re-negotiate, then you are at the mercy of whom ever you agreed with and if they don't see things your way, then they are not the bad guys.
Is it worth it to trump up a 90 second phone conversation with an agent of a company as the worst experience of your life so that you can get a couple of free oil changes? How much is your integrity worth?
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The Deal, it's all about the deal always in search of a better deal, for some it is a big deal when you have to work five jobs just to get by. I work hard for my money. It use to be the customer was always right. I always look for the guy who takes care of me , I go back to that guy...In the end let the guy walk away thinking you helped him out.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with searching for a good deal. As a consumer you do have rights and power but it doesn't mean you should be irrational. The customer is not always right. As a rational adult, no one can reasonably say the customer is right 100% of the time.
ReplyDeleteI work hard too and it irks me to have someone jeopardize my livelihood because he didn't get his oil changes. When a kid knows that all he has to do is throw a tantrum in a store to get a toy should the parent reward him?
He could have went about it entirely different and maybe had more success? There is a right way and a wrong way to do things.