Pride & Opinions

Since the end of the year and after the holidays involves a lot of financial reassessment and figuring out where one stands with the money spent to achieve holiday happiness, I thought I’d spend this week talking about different financial topics, especially those that disproportionately affect GLBT communities. So, a word to the wise - don’t spend your rent money on alcohol for New Year’s Eve! (I’ll be drinking sparkling grape juice. Ahhh, pregnancy.)

Though my actual job involves mostly administrative and logistical work for a non-profit organization, I’ve spent the holiday season doing some extra work at a local depatment store (local in the sense that it was founded in the area - it’s now owned by a major chain from the east coast) in customer service, a job I’ve done off and on since college and had the added bonus of getting me a pretty good discount on many of my Christmas presents. As is the case with most retailers, there’s a heavy promotion of the store credit card, and many folks come up to customer service (where I work) to pay their bills and figure out how much money is owed.

Since we don’t have any credit info in the store, people have to use a special credit phone to get their information, and I’ve noticed that since the last time I worked at this particular store, the credit company has been bought by another company, and the phone system is much much much worse than it used to be. Apparently, this is totally normal, and Nina at Queercents has a good post (though a little old) detailing some ways to go about getting an actual human being to talk to when you’re trying to figure out that credit card balance. I know that on our line, pressing the # key a number of times will get you a real person, but that you have to be careful with the timing or it’ll just try to get you to reenter your account information.

But once you get there? I would use 37 Signal’s Tips for Getting Good Customer Service, because as a customer service representative, I can personally attest that they are totally true. Though they’re geared to folks you speak with on the phone, a number of them are true in person as well. My favorite is this one:

Don’t start with a threat. “Do this immediately or else…�? or “If you don’t do this I’ll report you to the Better Business Bureau�? or “If you don’t do that I’m going to report this to my bank and other authorities�? or “If you don’t respond within 4 hours you’ll be hearing from my lawyer…�? It’s not uncommon to hear this on the first email from people. I don’t know if folks assume you are out to get them or they’ve been burned before, but starting with a threat never helps your cause. Given the choice to help two people, the customer service person is naturally going to help who appears easiest to help first. Plus, people will do more for others who are kind to them than they will for someone sounding bitter and dismissive right from the start.

I have often felt like there are two options for dealing with holiday and post-holiday shopping: in one option, we can all act as though we’re all in this together, and things take a little longer cause a ton of people are out there, but everyone’s doing the best they can with what they have to work with. Alternatively, we can act like everyone’s out to get us and be like those people who drive on the shoulder of the highway to avoid merging and then inconvenience everyone else by trying to cut in line in front of everyone wh’s been patiently folowing instructions. Obviously, the first option seems preferable to me, since people who work retail have to be at work being yelled at when people take the second option. Choosing to be helpful and kind goes a long way towards making shopping more productive and happy for everyone. I would imagine that this is especially true for a lot of GLBT folks and families, who may have more complicated holiday arrangements and present situations as a result of different family patterns. My husband and I, for example, had three Christmas celebrations, one with his dad and wife on the 23rd, one with my parents on the 24th, and one with his mom and partner on the 25th, though the partner had to leave in the middle to attend a family celebration that others weren’t invited to. Adding that kind of stress to an already stressful holiday season can only make the attempt to be nicer and more helpful positive for everyone.

GLBT, shopping, customer service, retail, holiday shopping

GLBT, shopping, customer service, retail, holiday shopping