After being out of customer service for almost Three years, I realized going back to full-time customer service work would not be an option anymore as I have lost my filters. I would most likely get fired when I tell the first stupid customer what is up. After thinking back I also realized, long before the Internet, I had ringside seats to the Darwin Awards where filters were the name of the game to keep the customers happy and keep my job.
I spent close to 20 years working in some form of customer service, both retail and phone, and found I had more patients for stupid customers in retail. I could never really figure out why things worked better for me in retail then I thought back and pictured my interactions on both sides. With phone customers, I only had the voice inflections to work with and could not read their body language which, sometimes, can be very deceiving or different from their body language. In retail, I could quickly combine body language with their voice inflections to come up with a way to help them in a matter of seconds.
When working in the retail world you come across many people, from the snotty rich who treat you as a servant to poor and then the ones you have to think ‘goddess I hope they didn’t procreate’. I have come across most types of people and have to say, after being out of customer service, I know I wouldn’t last. Filters were the name of the game. You know the ability to say one thing with a smile to the customer while the brain is screaming another. Well, I literally threw those filters out about two years ago.
Those of us with ringside seats to the Darwin Awards, how many times a day do we shake our heads to clear them of stupid things we’ve heard someone say or seen them do? How many times each day do we think the words Darwin Awards, or please don’t let them procreate?
I’m not one for crowds, but every once in a while over the last three years I get an urge to go to the mall or park or any place with many people and just watch. I make mental notes of what I’m seeing, sometimes I wonder those very things, other times I think to myself what if I combined all the stupid things I see people do into a character for one of my fiction books? Most books I’ve read have at least one Darwin award character, I think they make for a good book. Depending on what the character is going through, I find myself either cheering for them or rooting for something equally stupid to happen to them. In reality, though, Karma often works much too slow.
I still like my ringside seat, but now I get to choose when I sit in it to watch the Darwin Awards in action. I have found when you put many people in a small space whether it’s shopping, movie watching or at an amusement park you will see the Darwin Awards in action. If you are a writer, sit back and make mental notes on what you are seeing, it may just end up being an interesting character. If you aren’t a writer, do it anyway to realize why you are one of the lucky ones.
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