Customer vs. Service Employee

Being in customer service myself, it is easy to get in difficult situations daily when it comes to pleasing customers. It is likely that everyone has either interacted with a difficult customer or has possibly even been the difficult customer. Some people do not realize the different views and aspects of being a customer and being the employee in customer service. With being a customer and employee I know that the knowledge is the same, but the views in a challenging situation are different.

The view of customer may be that they are usually in control in the interaction. When being a customer, it is likely to demand and receive service. The knowledge is that the customer is always right, at no cost. With these all being the common views of a customer it is frequent that being in customer service people tend get difficult consumers, this is more common in the fast food industry. With me working in the fast food industry for a while, learning how to please customers and know what they want has been helpful, although it gets to be difficult when they start being rude. Often customers have some type of complaint and are very loud about it, but it is my job to make them feel right. Customers are what keep businesses going and some people know that, which leads them to feeling in control. An example of this is that a customer orders a cake. Everything went smoothly with the order until the customer saw the order of the cake was blue and not pink, but accidently they checked the box for blue. Now the customer is mad and not happy with the cake. This not the employee’s fault, but we must make the customer happy. In some cases the view of the customer is that the employee made the mistake and that we need to fix it right away. Because we are taught that the customer is always right or to make them feel that they are always right is our duty to do so.
In comparison, the employee has the same knowledge of the customer but the views in a difficult situation differ. With being an employee in customer service it is important that an worker does not make the customer feel that they are wrong. Even though a difficult customer is arguing and the employee knows that they are right and customer is in the wrong it is the goal to make them feel right, which in return gives them superiority over the employee. The idea of the customer always being right is the knowledge of both customer and employee, but two viewing points differ from one another.

The ultimate goal in most business is to make the client happy and hope that they are impressed with the service. A customer and employee both know that the customer is to be pleased and that everything is ran smoothly so that the client will want to come back. Using the example of the cake order again being the employee it occurred to me that the customer was in control and right, even though it was their mistake. Another example is that a customer calls and complains about another one of the employees and is saying that he or she was very disrespectful and rude. Being the employee that takes the call it seemed customer was lying, because I saw what had happened. Now being the employee it is my job to make sure that they are pleased and know the issue will be taken care of.
The previous examples of comparing and contrasting the views, knowledge and goals of the customer and customer service employee are helpful in describing the relationship the two have. Speaking from personal experience has allowed me to make these comparison and contradictions. Often when one of the employees works they have an interaction with at least one difficult customer. It is my duty to make sure they are pleased with the customer service, the end result and the business as a whole. On the other side of being an employee often they are also customers. Being a customer myself it tends to be challenging because of the felling of superiority of other employees in their own business. Having been both customer and employee, learning the views of both sides has been helpful in the success of employee and customer relationships.

In conclusion it is important that the employee stays to these guild lines when helping a customer for a successful transition. With the customer being happy the employee will be happy and another business will succeed. It is common that there are complaints and problems on a business, especially fast food. Customers and employees have the same knowledge of what needs to happen, yet two very different views in a difficult situation.