H
ave you ever had your patience tested? Have you ever had so much fun helping
someone pick out a really nice outfit? Have you ever wanted to just calmly tell a customer they’re being an asshole--because they were? That’s the life of customer service. Whether it’s making coffee, stocking shelves or folding jeans, customer service workers often deal with the best and worst of humanity--here are their stories.
customers always complain about return policies. Once this guy came in to Forever21 and wanted to return a sweater because he wore it twice to work, note he works in construction, and it ripped f rom the f ront pocket. He wanted to exchange for another one.” —Anthony Salcedo visual manager at Forever 21
The Good, the Bad and the Oh, Well
Anthony Salcedo, visual manager at Forever 21 Red in Yakima, Wash., has been working in customer service for a while. Before working at Forever 21 Red, Salcedo worked at Old Navy for two years as a product placement and marketing manager. Since working in the retail business, Salcedo has had some bad experiences with customers, saying, “Customers always complain about return policies. Once this guy came into Forever 21 and wanted to return a sweater because he wore it twice to work-note he works in construction--and it ripped from the front pocket and [he] wanted to exchange for another one.” But can all retail experiences be this bad? Or, can they be just as great as they are bad?
Jazmin Gonzalez, a stylist at Flirt, says, “We just try to make [the customer] feel good about what they’re wearing and I just think that that’s the unique thing about Flirt.” She adds, “It’s awesome when you get to connect with somebody.” But Gonzalez says she knows that sometimes customers just don’t want to be helped. Retail isn’t the only line of customer service that comes with its ups and downs.
Alfonso Olivera, a security guard at the night club Casa Vittore in Yakima, says that in the months he’s worked there, he’s had to deal with people who “sometimes get out of hand, and I have to control that and take people out who are being disrespectful.” As a Wild Goose Casino employee, Makayla Reed has experienced the joy and troubles of being a bartender, waitress and money teller. Reed says that there’s a regular that sometimes gives the staff a hard time, explaining, “This lady … had been there all day drinking and she wasn’t terribly, terribly rude and drunk, but when we tried to take her her bill, she complained about it and was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t drink that much!’” Reed continues, “That’s probably the worst one. She’s kind of a regular there; she’s kind of known to be rude about when her tab is wrong or when she thinks it’s wrong.”
FALL 2018 | ISSUE ONE
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