Don’t Make Your Customers Feel Stupid

Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 18, 2009 under Customer Moments, Missed Moments, Resolving Conflict | Be the First to Comment

I’m struggling to regain my composure.  I have just been made to feel more stupid than dirt and it isn’t a feeling I enjoy.

You may have read that I joined a gym recently - happy one week anniversary to me – and I’m using this TechnoGym thingie that keeps my workouts on a computer chip.  I insert the handy-dandy thumb drive into each piece of equipment and it tells me the seat height, number of reps and weight I should lift.  At the end of the session, I put my thumb drive into a main computer and it tells me how many pounds I lifted (15,680, thank you very much) and gives me more charts and graphs than I care to look at.

But what happens when you have to use one of the old fashion, non-computer pieces of equipment because the fancy stuff isn’t available?  Well, that’s what happened to me yesterday and today.  It isn’t a prob – I just used the regular equipment, but it messed up the computer thumb drive.

So today I decided to ask for help to fix the problem.  The staff member shall remain nameless (but it sounds like TROY) lolly gagged his way across the gym in my direction, the tortoise could have beat him and still had time for a movie, and doesn’t make eye contact but mumbles something.

I hate mumblers.

I am already frustrated but I know it is human error, my human error - I just want a work around.  Show me how to get credit for the sweat I just left all over the bike.

He put my thumb drive in the machine.

“You didn’t do the exercise.”

“Yes.  I did.  I already said that.  I just did it on a different machine.”

“Well, it says here you didn’t do it.”

“Y..e..s..I know that.  That is the problem.  How do I get credit for it?”

“You can’t because you didn’t do the exercise.”

I am about to learn a new exercise called strangulation, but I take a deep breath.  I decide to take a different tack.  Because here’s the deal – if I don’t figure out how to get credit it won’t allow me to access my other workouts. 

“How can I get out of this computer mode?”

“You can’t until you do the exercise.”

URG.

So, what did I do?  I got on the Techno bike and RE-DID my exercise so the computer would feel better.

He came over and said.  So did you figure it out?

AHHHHHHHH.

I felt like he thought I was stupid.  I felt like the computer thought I was stupid and now my legs are like rubber because I did the exercise twice just to make the computer feel better.  How stupid is that?

And guess what?  I AM PAYING FOR THIS!

I am not a happy customer right now.  I am not happy that I paid EXTRA for this computer support and I definitely don’t feel like I experienced good customer service.  I limped out of there bordering between anger and tears over a stupid exercise.

How often do we follow the rules and policies to a tee and make our customers suffer the consequences?  When we talk down to our customers, use company jargon, don’t listen carefully to the issue we run the risk of making our customers feel stupid.  What customers wants to pay their HARD EARNED MONEY to feel stupid?

Not me.