Bad Service

It is amazing when people offering a paid service act like they are doing a favour to the customer. In a sense though, they are doing a favour by making available what is desired by the consumer, but one that is returned in payment. A reversible  favour of convenience one might say since payment is always favorable to business.

So when the lady at the reception today looked at me coming through her office entrance but instantly look her gaze off and continued her conversation with an unseen occupant on the other side of the her office, I heard the alarm bell ringing that another bad service was brewing. Although as  I was not directly at her desk yet, it would be impatient of me to assume that she wouldn't give me her undivided attention when I am stationed right in front of her. I walked up to her, said my greeting twice and her eyes drifted to me and away again. For a moment I felt I was invisible in broad day light…and the vain thoughts that come with such supernatural state ran through my head (  go rob bank for example!). After a few giggles with the unseen party, she finally turned to answer me and that, with no apologies.

It was my first time at that office, there was no one else in the waiting area and it was very obvious that I am a prospective client. With that much cold shoulder meted to me, the urge was to tell her how unpleasant she was and then walk away. However,a mixture of the fact that I was reliably referred there and that the business I sought to pursue had been elusive for more than six months, somehow hatched a cool within me. I just wanted to get my business done. The end does justified the means.

Perhaps another reason for holding up from expressing my displeasure today ,was that lately I have had a succession of tirades in matters similar. My energy level has frankly become temporarily low for such confrontations. I was having one of those moments when it is reasonable to hide under the guise that silence can be a strategy in an argument. Better still, that  one’s voice can be loudest when no sound is made!

Bad service has a away of making us us feel violated and can easily cast an unpleasant cloud over an otherwise merry demeanor – which may be carried by the recipient beyond the service point. It is  a disregard for courtesy and a reflection of attitude. Those  who dish  it out have a high rate of repetition. If (as it seems) those that pay bad service don't often see anything wrong with in their approach to life, contesting them isn't always the best the best solution. Unfortunately too, it is just inevitable to avoid people with a foul attitude. While online services come handy in that they cut off the middle man and its attendant frictions, genuine human interactions can be very rewarding – I just alluded to finding  an elusive service from a referral.

It worthy of note that what a client perceives a bad service is not always so. This may arise among others from a client’s lack understanding of the  modus operandi of  an organization, unrealistic (well, uninformed) expectations, bias or from a genuinely unintended miscommunication. Take these away and offer excellent services, some clients are still going to be fastidious and  critical.

Whatever the response to bad service is, be it vilifying the perpetrator or outrightly turning deaf ears, one must guard oneself from the negativity it can create, deal with it there, then and move on. My default position today was to make an excuse for the offender and get my business done. After all, are only truly in control over our own self.