Customers are always right

Working in a client-facing customer-servicing job, I've had to apologize to (potential) clients for slow systems or failed transactions due to down times and ATM machines that does not work or even for not being able to promise things that may be impossible.

Why? It's because I know what the problem was and given all information you would need to be able to manage customers. Yes, even if it isn't your fault (may be the system connections that a human cannot solve), I would still willingly apologize because customers subscribe to a certain product and brand for what it can do and never for what it may not be able to do. Managing client is priority because we are expected to provide them with whatever they need. Customers have the right to ask for what they want, and with that said if what they requested for is not available, it is also our duty to properly and clearly explain it to them. Yes, these are all my duty because I am client-facing and at customers' service and you should be protecting the brand that you work for.

At the end of the day, customers are adults and you know that they would be able to understand when explained to clearly.

What I have just experienced recently was pretty terrible. I've had to approach a party (on behalf of Double A) whereby I was the customer. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say that in an organization such as theirs, they had this fear of cc-ing bosses or letting superiors know of how they work - to me, if you have not done anything wrong, you should not be afraid. In fact, you would want your bosses to acknowledge it in order to gain visibility.

Long story short, he explained A to me which I needed further clarification on. Instead of further explaining, (on a different day) he tells me he has 3 minutes to listen to me and that was all the time he had for me as a customer. Which client-facing person would in the right mind tell customers that? Explained all I could in 3 minutes, he left. Weeks later he called to tell me that I need to explain to him again because his Boss asked him but he did not know how to answer. Come on dude, you told me you had 3 minutes, now you're panicking when your Boss ask you to explain the product that you are selling to me.

So I came over to the office to explain but instead of listening, he said to me "Actually I don't understand coffee. Maybe you can do a presentation to our committee straightaway". Bravo to people who cannot be stretched in their jobs. So I proceeded to table my presentation (on behalf of him) and got everything sorted. Came in to sign papers and was told that when they explained A to me earlier, they actually meant B. Tried calling him to clarify, but never once did he pick up his calls, so in instances like this you naturally would write in to the Boss (who was the other person on the deal) to clarify.

What happens next? He went ballistic because we communicated with the Boss directly. My simple question to him was "but I thought you said you did nothing wrong, so why so scared?". In fact, he went up to my Manager and said "your bosses have made it so difficult for me because they communicated directly to my Boss. But this stays between the two of us don't tell your bosses". Again, if you had not done anything wrong, why then inform only my Manager and made her promise to keep it between the two of you. I hire people who work and would protect the good name of the company, you may have picked the wrong person to share secrets with.

It's puzzling  to see how certain organizations are so hierarchical that one would not speak up when questioned by the Boss but would instead relay their frustration to someone who know nothing about the situation to gain sympathy and votes. Come on Malaysians, we need to have more integrity in the work that we do! Long story short, he told our Manager a lot of things off the records that I would indeed make this known to his boss, only because I wouldn't want another customer to get into the same situation as I did. Customers are always right, unless and until they ask for the stars and the moon.