Friday, May 6, 2011

My First Customer Complaint---You be the Judge

This week  I got my first official customer compliant on my job since I started 15 months ago. Here's how it went down. The first time I encountered this lady she had an air about her that was unpleasant she came in on the cellphone. When I attempted to gather the info needed she acted irritated that I was disrupting her call. She was not very nice but hey some people aren't, no biggie. The next encounter was when I was training a new staff member who happens to have an accent but speaks clear English. During training I go stay with the person interacting with the parent to ensure that they get proper info and do things correctly. On that day the lady rushed in, threw her baby's items on the counter and then seemed irritated that it took the trainee an extra minute to check in. When the staff asked the lady's name for the second time the lady removed her name tag and put it in the girls face so that she could see the correct spelling. RUDE! That day she dropped her baby off with 1 bottle 1 barefoot, 1 sock foot??? She rushed and was quite impolite.
Yesterday this lady pulls up I immediately go up front to check her in but she stays in her car I wait a few minutes, she does not get out so I return to the play area. Ten minutes or so later she gets out of her car. In her arms she has a baby bottle, 2 diapers, wipes, a bag of grapes, a container of applesauce and her baby tucked dangling under her arm all while still talking on her phone. She almost drops the baby whom she sets down and the baby takes off running down the parking lot. Still balancing all the stuff she had she catches the baby and semi-totes semi-drags him into the building,,,,still on the phone. I greet her and instead of a hello or good morning I get "Donald Blanking" ( the child's name, obviously changed). I look the child up and begin to ask the preliminary questions that she seems irritated by because again I am disrupting her phone call. She flings all the random items on the counter and asks rudely in the middle of my questions "are you through?" I was not. But I told her yes she could go. 
Two hours later we are changing the baby's diaper and notice that he has a pretty bad diaper rash and welts on the inside of his thigh?  They are red and look painful. She has provided us no diaper cream or explanation for this. Then on his back, chest and arms he has about 50 small bumps. This looks like a rash you would get with chicken pox or an allergic reaction or even a virus related rash. Either way the mother told us nothing about the rash and knowing her temperament I call the owner just to inform her of that I would be calling  the mom to come pick him up. Our policy states that if a child has any rash other than diaper we need a doctors note to state it is not contagious. The owner gives me the go ahead. Knowing this won't go well I put on my sweetest voice and place the call. Here is how the call went:


Stank Ass Attitude Mommy
Sweet, Professional Me
My Thoughts, what I would say if I did not need this job


Hi Mrs. Blanking I am calling you because when we were changing Donald we noticed a rash all over his body.
Yeah and (not going well)
And It is our policy that any child that has a rash must have a doctors note provided so ....
she cuts me off- it's from a new laundry detergent we tried
okay I really do not need to know what it is ( I know that this is BS because why would it be in his diaper area) just need a note stating it is not contagious
Well it is not  like that statement would serve as the note
Yes ma'am however I will need a note to put in his file so that we are covered, the note only needs to state that it is not contagius
Well I do not have one
Could you get one to me
No I cannot
Okay well he really cannot be here with such a rash until I have one.You see other parents come in to tour the facility and if someone questions it I need something to be able to ensure them that it is not contagious. Just to be sure I called the owner and let her know what was going on and she agrees that Donald should be picked up.
Well what exactly are you saying
I am saying that he will need to be picked up
Why didn't you tell me that when I dropped him off
As if ! Bitch you wouldn't even get off the phone and provide me the basics, How the hell was I supposed to know he had that rash? Should I go over the entire sick policy with everyone at drop off?  That's what I wanted to say
What I did say was:  Well  ma'am I only noticed the rash when he was changed. It's not as if we go stripping and inspecting the kids when they come in. Seriously
Well you still should have told me, this is very unprofessional
Unprofessional!!!! Are you kidding me! You cannot even find an additional sock for his foot or provide cream for the diaper rash, or time to place his 16 items in a diaper bag or some info at drop off not mention your kid ran away in the parking lot all while you continued on your lil phone call
How long before you are expecting me to be there
30 minutes 
Well I won't be there in 30 minutes
Well when can you get here 
45 minutes
That will be fine At this point whatever he has has already been spread around the facility.  
And when I get there I want to talk to your supervisor because this is very unprofessional
What is it with her do you not have any other adjectives other than unprofessional?
Okay I'll have her call you 
No I want to see her in person
She is not on site
Well I will wait
Okay see you soon
I call the owner who happens to be coming in anyway to pick up her kids. When she arrives she attempts to call Mrs. Blanking and Mrs. Blanking  does not answer her phone. Shocker since its always attached to her head. She eventually rolls up and the owner comes up to talk to her while I busy myself in the back.The first thing she says is I want you to know that my child is not sick. Those are mosquito bites. Mosquito bites WTH happened to the detergent excuse? 
The staff member pulls up the boys shirt to show her that he is covered in many small bumps that are definitely not mosquito bites. She then says in faked shock Oh I did not know those were there. You know what it is? That is a new shirt he is wearing he must be irritated by the material. Okay now you are just making shit up. First off the shirt is anything but new and what about the detergent excuse you threw at me over the phone? She says a few other unimportant things but what she did not say was that I was unprofessional. She did not mention me at all. My owner told her off the bat that I followed protocol and that is what I should do. I guess she needed to hear that from someone with a bigger paycheck.
Ugggh





7 comments:

  1. I saw your comment on my blog. Thanks for visiting!

    OMG, I'm speechless after reading this post. The level of rudeness in some people is unbelievable. I applaud the line of work you're in, often people in your occupation go unappreciated.

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  2. Being in business on my own, I have the luxury of firing customers. There are just some people where it does not make good business sense to keep them. Too bad you do not have that luxury. I think this would be a perfect example of someone you would NOT want as a customer.

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  3. I feel sorry for that kid. I hope she continues to bring him to your site, so he gets some love and attention.

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  4. I feel sorry for the kid too. Even well educated women are sometimes a danger to their children.

    I had a client once who was a pain in the behind. After an incident where her job was late being delivered through no fault of ours, she complained about one of my employees. She told me to "fire that girl" or she was not going to give us more work. I said, "I hope you find another company to do your work." I said it with a smile.

    If you work with people your job is hard. If you own a small business, sometimes being able to decline a client's work is one of the rewards.

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  5. Oh, and the owner should immediately post a large sign outside the door: Please turn off your cell phones so we may serve you personally.

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  6. She sounds like a less than pleasant person. I have a child in day care and I have worked for a daycare and what you did was pretty standard.

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  7. Agree with Charlene that there needs to be a sign that states that it is a cell phone free zone inside. I've seen many of these lately and I so love them. I think it's rude to be talking on your cell phone when someone is trying to help you. No phone call is that important. Or if it is, then you don't need to be dropping off your kid at the same time.

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