I really think that your work has the potential help improve things for people on both sides of the counter. When reading your articles on human to human service I realized that if I acted bitter or resentful about my job when serving people, I had no right to complain if someone I was serving treated me badly because ultimately I was doing the same thing to my customers. When I stumbled upon your blog I was very pessimistic, but now I try to be an optimist, tho some days it’s not easy. I treat each transaction like a fresh slate, trying to forget the bad transactions and focus in on the good ones.

Many moons ago when I was about 40 pounds heavier, I was shopping at Lane Bryant and encountered one of the most helpful CSR I have ever come across. Her name escapes me as it was some years back but I wanted to tell her store manager how much I appreciated her efforts.

When I called and got the manager on the line, I could actually hear her bracing for what she thought would be a barrage of complaints. Once I started explaining how pleased I was with the service provided to me, she sighed and thanked me profusely for calling with praise.

Good customer service needs to be rewarded just as often as bad customer service needs to be chastised.

…thought so…you puss’s don’t have a set of balls between you to contact me…

Ultimately, the fundamental difference between a small business and a corporation is that for one the employees are people for the other they’re numbers. When it comes to corporations those at the top are so far removed from the realities of the front line that their policies do not protect employees from abuse and encourage unreasonable behavior on the part of some customers. I know that to succeed as a business you need to get customers to come back, but there are some people you really don’t want to come back or to have as one of your regulars.

Also, Kudos to Mike not many people would be big enough to issue an apology the way he did.