re: #286 Walter L. Newton

I’ve learned something working at the supermarket, something about problematic customers… they want attention, and if you give that to them, if you let them rant and rage, make a scene and then bend over backwards to give them anything they want to shut them up, they will just do it again.

But, if you are polite with them, get right to their problem, and solve it, without giving them ANY recognition for their tantrum, not getting into any conversation on all the “side” issues, just get right to the point, then you deny them the thing they are most looking for… attention… it stops them cold… and at the same time, you’re not being rude or uncooperative…

I had an example of that yesterday. A customer wanted to tell me the whole story of her disappointment with my competition. I (politely, I think) cut her off with “What do you want ME to do?” She ended up taking her problem back to them to fix what they had screwed up. Saved me more time than she would have been worth.

The Public. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t make a living without ‘em.