LPT: Always be nice and patient with customer service people. We have a lot of tools to help you, but we will conveniently forget them if you are rude.

First of all, you would assume that “being polite” wouldn’t need to be said, and we should all do it just as a standard practice. But if common decency isn't adequate motivation, just be aware that usually customer service people have a lot more options for providing different solutions, but we are very unlikely to engage them if somebody is snapping, raising their voice, or overall just being rude to us. I have both been a customer and I’ve worked in customer service, and I’ve seen both sides of this. If you’re nice, treat the person like an actual human being, and are patient and understanding, I’ve seen them bend over backward and I’ve truly saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars just by being nice. I’ve also spent additional hours and have gone well out of my way to support customers who treat me with dignity instead of assuming that I am below them or lesser than them for my customer service role. Sometimes there’s nothing we can do, but oftentimes we can do more than you might realize, but again we will conveniently “forget“ for somebody who treats us like shit.

Edit to add: All the people PMing me or commenting that I'm "bad at my job" for what I've outlined in this LPT, I never said I wouldn't do my job. I will do my job, and only my job. If a customer is reasonable and polite, I might find an extra coupon, expedite shipping, suggest an alternate solution to a problem. If they treat me like shit, I will do exactly my job and nothing else. Being shit on is not in the job description and y'all who say that we should be sugary sweet towards people yelling at us have clearly never worked in customer service and it shows.

submitted by /u/Katelyn89 to r/LifeProTips
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