I'm on a roll with customer service lessons today! Following my trip to the bank and their non-working-customer-service-phone-that's-really-a-direct-connection-with-the-local-police-department story, I placed a call to a major Las Vegas hotel inquiring about meeting space for an upcoming conference I'm putting together.
The sales assistant answered the phone, and I had seen from an 
earlier e-mail she had sent me, she had a very unique Hawaiian sounding name. Wanting to make a little connection with someone I would be talking to off and on for the next few weeks, I tried making small talk.
"You have a really unique last name, is it Hawaiian?" I asked.
"Yes", she replied in a very tired and put-out tone.
"How do you pronounce it?", I asked, not wanting to mess it up in the future.
"Why should I tell you? You'll just mess it up the next time we talk", she replied (had she just read my mind, or was she just amazingly rude?)
I was undaunted, and was ready to call her bluff, even though she was sounding like a rude pig at this point.
"Oh, you shouldn't have said that! Now I've got to learn it!", I said excitedly.
"No, it's not worth my time...seriously, why should I help you learn it?" she asked.
Was this really happening? Was a sales assistant really talking this way to a CUSTOMER????
To make a long story short, she finally relented. She pronounced her name for me, and whatta-ya-know, I managed to learn it. But I have a pretty dim view of a certain Roman-themed hotel that likes to bill itself as a palace.
EVERYONE is selling ALL of the time. EVERYONE. Make sure you don't have someone like this staffed in your office (and if you do, find a way to replace them).
Great story, Dan. Goes to show that humans are not always on top of their game, so to speak, while at work. I'm glad you had patience in that situation!
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | May 13, 2006 10:42 AM | Permalink to Comment