The unruly employee:
I was in the office of a well
known Nigerian University and observed as a medium size crowd awaited the
attendant response of an officer of the institution’s cybercafé located in the
administrative block. I was in a hurry just like everyone was. Knowing very
well that the cyber officer is under pressure, I moved on to a user of on one
of the busy computers to ask for the procedure at the internet office, before
meeting with the officer in charge. This actually helped me to avoid an
impending tongue lash that could have been directed at me. I knew exactly what
I wanted and what I needed the officer to do for me before meeting with him, so
his job was only to deliver without needing to listen extensively to what I
needed. No wonder he treated my request without much problem arising, yet not
with the perfect touch a customer care expectant customer like me would
anticipate.
I was almost done with my request
as I waited for the officer to hand over my printed forms to me. I saw a
customer complaining to the officer from the other end and could not really
understand what the customer wants. Obviously, the customer was complaining
about the service and that he wanted the officer to attend to his case. All of
a sudden, I heard the officer shout at the customer “you are very stupid for
saying that”. I was taken aback and felt very embarrassed. What more can one
expect? The customer retorted “who do you think you are?” and to everyone’s
surprise the officer who was already fuming repeated himself. This time he made
it very clear and confirmed to everyone standing “I repeat, you are very, very,
very stupid for saying what you said”. Everyone was astonished that someone
whose work was to bring and satisfy customers’ needs is the one responsible for
their overt abuse.
I could not stand there until the
matter degenerates to an unending brawl; I had to beg the customer to overlook
the officer’s rudeness. I calmed the upset customer and he left somewhat in a
better mood. Several customers tried to caution the officer about his unruly
behaviour but he was adamant. I also met with him, trying to make him see why
should accommodate all manner of pressure from his customers. My effort was
fruitless as he repeated severally that the customer is very stupid. His
explanation about what the customer did was only able to clarify to us that he
was under pressure. He mentioned that the customer should have known that he
was under pressure and should have avoided getting him upset. I had to stop
when I realized that this man got it all wrong and there was nothing we could
do about his attitude. Other customers confirmed that this is his usual
disposition towards them and that he had even threatened to slap another
customer that morning.
Now the question is, why would
any employee upset his customer? Do you know of any good reason for this kind
of disposition? If you have valid reasons why this customer should be treated
this way or any other comments that could help with way forward on this
complaint, kindly comment on the blog at http://successdrive.blogspot.com
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