Today’s entry is about the closest thing to a “rant” that
you will find on this blog, so far. In fairness, I said “so far”. Here we go.
I am tired of Karen. No, I am not tired of challenging
customers. I am tired of the lazy act of calling someone Karen, simply because
they challenged you a bit. Maybe it was
too many questions. Maybe it was a perceived “attitude”. Maybe it was, in fact,
a customer from hell. It doesn’t matter. STOP with the lazy “Karen” excuse for
not effectively and lovingly dealing with humans.
There is no denying that some customers are never going to
be happy, but guess what? That percentage is so infinitesimal that it’s time to
stop lazily walking away, calling them “Karen” and not actually taking the time
to see what they need as a human being in your establishment.
The “Karen” phenomenon has allowed us to be lazy in customer
service. Rather than accepting the challenge of dealing with a human, we now
just write it off to a “Karen”, and wait for our colleagues to give us sympathy,
as though we just faced a mountain lion, or fought off a troll. Meanwhile, that
customer who you didn’t even try to provide resolution continues their damaged
behavior, perpetuating a cycle of anger on both sides of the interaction.
Remember? I’m not calling them transactions anymore.
There are online publications dedicated to giving press to
service workers with sob stories about challenging customers. On rare occasion
the situation did, in fact, involve an especially unruly customer. But, in most
cases, they were videos of customers being human beings like the rest of us. I
think it’s time to stop encouraging people in customer service to return the
energy the customer is giving them back to the customer. I know, that in my
customer service history, the times I was most irritated with guests were usually
when I was irritated with myself. We can often project our own situation onto
the interaction we are having with a challenging client, and walk away from it
giving them ALL the blame for the interaction.
I am not saying all of us in customer service do that. I am
merely reminding everyone that we must take into consideration, our own
humanity when dealing with another’s. Social media is beginning to reward service
people for putting a “Karen” in their place. So much, so, that there are Social
Media sites dedicated to it. I want to see sites dedicated to showing the world
how you KINDLY and LOVINGLY resolved a challenging guest problem. We could all
share our ideas on how we do it in our individual businesses. This my friends,
is how customer service saves the world. Yes, it is a wildly idealistic
concept. It’s also one that is possible.
So, lets give the poor women who just happened to be named “Karen”
a break and, instead, challenge ourselves to break through to the humans who
are just trying to get through life with their stories and emotions intact.
