Community Chat

[Moonchilde]

@sandraskates, disagreeing with your reaction to the situation you put forth and what you want to do about it is not "attacking" you, it's disagreeing with your assessment, nothing more. That's going to happen in Community Chat because that's what CC is FOR - the giving and receiving of opinions.

Areas where you will find 100% sympathy, righteous indignation, agreement and warm fuzzies do not exist, but the percentages might be better for you in Among Friends or Pet Lovers.

[Laura14]

I am in customer service and have been most of my career.  I will only add that administrative support plus customer service has to have a dual personality which is very difficult to find.  You are asking for a head down get the paperwork done quickly and correctly but also stop and look up to make each and every person's day.  It's very difficult to walk and jump that line all day every day.    It's two different ends of the personality spectrum.  

As others have said, if you have someone with the chit chat gene, they are probably not very reliable with the paperwork and billing which can cause all kinds of issues even more so than a put off client.  If you have someone great with paperwork but without the people skills, it offends the customers' sense of courtesy as she did you.  

Most of us whose paychecks depend on efficiently supporting others really do try our best to balance our work demands and our personality types with everyone we encounter from our coworkers to our customers and it can be a very thankless job because you literally can not please everybody.  To do everything and be everything to everyone's standards is just about impossible.  We have to come up short somewhere and it's easy to stop trying which she may have done.  If she has, shame on her but dealing with the public is the most difficult job you'll ever have.  And it's not like others won't notice if she's really hard to be around.  

The vet is normally not a place you have to be on a regular basis.  I agree that, unless you are thinking of going elsewhere, it's best to just chalk it up to a personality or service standard difference and deal with it for the few minutes you have to interact with her maybe a few times a year.  

Actually asking her how her day is going or wishing her a nice day as you finish up I think would automatically elicit the interaction you are hoping for.  You could just fix your own issue with a few kind words in her direction.  

If you have a relationship with the vet, verbally broach the subject if you must.  But keep in mind, everyone needs their job and you never know how a good intention to correct what you perceive as a bad habit or worse may play out.  I personally think going to management is something reserved for more egregious acts and, from what I read, this wasn't that in my opinion.

Most importantly, I hope your pet gets well soon!         

[Caligurll]

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@Laura14 wrote:

I am in customer service and have been most of my career.  I will only add that administrative support plus customer service has to have a dual personality which is very difficult to find.  You are asking for a head down get the paperwork done quickly and correctly but also stop and look up to make each and every person's day.  It's very difficult to walk and jump that line all day every day.    It's two different ends of the personality spectrum.  

As others have said, if you have someone with the chit chat gene, they are probably not very reliable with the paperwork and billing which can cause all kinds of issues even more so than a put off client.  If you have someone great with paperwork but without the people skills, it offends the customers' sense of courtesy as she did you.  

Most of us whose paychecks depend on efficiently supporting others really do try our best to balance our work demands and our personality types with everyone we encounter from our coworkers to our customers and it can be a very thankless job because you literally can not please everybody.  To do everything and be everything to everyone's standards is just about impossible.  We have to come up short somewhere and it's easy to stop trying which she may have done.  If she has, shame on her but dealing with the public is the most difficult job you'll ever have.  And it's not like others won't notice if she's really hard to be around.  

The vet is normally not a place you have to be on a regular basis.  I agree that, unless you are thinking of going elsewhere, it's best to just chalk it up to a personality or service standard difference and deal with it for the few minutes you have to interact with her maybe a few times a year.  

Actually asking her how her day is going or wishing her a nice day as you finish up I think would automatically elicit the interaction you are hoping for.  You could just fix your own issue with a few kind words in her direction.  

If you have a relationship with the vet, verbally broach the subject if you must.  But keep in mind, everyone needs their job and you never know how a good intention to correct what you perceive as a bad habit or worse may play out.  I personally think going to management is something reserved for more egregious acts and, from what I read, this wasn't that in my opinion.

Most importantly, I hope your pet gets well soon!   ;

@Laura14 I so agree with you about the chit chatting.  A few years back my dentist's wife was subbing in his office taking care of payments and appointments.   She is the cheeriest, nicest person you ever want to meet. I was paying and she and I were chit chatting while I was paying and she accidentally charged my credit card $5,000 instead of $500.  She noticed it right away and took the charge off, so no harm done, except a simple transaction turned into  time-consuming effort to correct .  I would much rather have someone concentrating on the details of the job and not the details of chit chat.

When I interact with people I say please and thank you.  Whether they choose to respond in kind is up to them. I only worry about my manners.

I would not put another person's job in jeopardy because I didn't get a cheery thank you.

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[Noel7]

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@Caligurll wrote:

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@Laura14 wrote:

I am in customer service and have been most of my career.  I will only add that administrative support plus customer service has to have a dual personality which is very difficult to find.  You are asking for a head down get the paperwork done quickly and correctly but also stop and look up to make each and every person's day.  It's very difficult to walk and jump that line all day every day.    It's two different ends of the personality spectrum.  

As others have said, if you have someone with the chit chat gene, they are probably not very reliable with the paperwork and billing which can cause all kinds of issues even more so than a put off client.  If you have someone great with paperwork but without the people skills, it offends the customers' sense of courtesy as she did you.  

Most of us whose paychecks depend on efficiently supporting others really do try our best to balance our work demands and our personality types with everyone we encounter from our coworkers to our customers and it can be a very thankless job because you literally can not please everybody.  To do everything and be everything to everyone's standards is just about impossible.  We have to come up short somewhere and it's easy to stop trying which she may have done.  If she has, shame on her but dealing with the public is the most difficult job you'll ever have.  And it's not like others won't notice if she's really hard to be around.  

The vet is normally not a place you have to be on a regular basis.  I agree that, unless you are thinking of going elsewhere, it's best to just chalk it up to a personality or service standard difference and deal with it for the few minutes you have to interact with her maybe a few times a year.  

Actually asking her how her day is going or wishing her a nice day as you finish up I think would automatically elicit the interaction you are hoping for.  You could just fix your own issue with a few kind words in her direction.  

If you have a relationship with the vet, verbally broach the subject if you must.  But keep in mind, everyone needs their job and you never know how a good intention to correct what you perceive as a bad habit or worse may play out.  I personally think going to management is something reserved for more egregious acts and, from what I read, this wasn't that in my opinion.

Most importantly, I hope your pet gets well soon!   ;

@Laura14 I so agree with you about the chit chatting.  A few years back my dentist's wife was subbing in his office taking care of payments and appointments.   She is the cheeriest, nicest person you ever want to meet. I was paying and she and I were chit chatting while I was paying and she accidentally charged my credit card $5,000 instead of $500.  She noticed it right away and took the charge off, so no harm done, except a simple transaction turned into  time-consuming effort to correct .  I would much rather have someone concentrating on the details of the job and not the details of chit chat.

When I interact with people I say please and thank you.  Whether they choose to respond in kind is up to them. I only worry about my manners.

I would not put another person's job in jeopardy because I didn't get a cheery thank you.

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@Caligurll

@Laura14

I agree!  A pleasant comment or so is one thing, but when someone really takes off with chat my radar goes off to pay attention to what they're doing since they aren't.

[SaRina]

Great post @Laura14.

[Pook]

I would rather have the work completed correctly than have a people person who on the surface makes everyone smile but then mess up the work on a regular basis.  I supervised a unit that needed a receptionis who was responsible for high volumes of complicated work.  The woman who was there was an excellent worker who could be counted on to get all the work completed so the customer could get the best service.  She had a monotone voice and was not a smily person.  When someone asked to speak with me to complain, I explained that to them she might seem a bad choice for the job.  I also told them I could put others who had a better voice or personality on the job but they would not be able to complete all the work timely and without errors so in the end they would not get the best timely results.  Once I explained this, all understood and choose to have faster service rather than  a chirpy smily person who didn't get the work done right or as fast!!   When others filled in, it always took help from other workers to complete the work timely and correct the errors.

[RedTop]

I often find that our expectations of what others should do, is just way too high.

[Moonchilde]

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@Pook wrote:

I would rather have the work completed correctly than have a people person who on the surface makes everyone smile but then mess up the work on a regular basis.  I supervised a unit that needed a receptionis who was responsible for high volumes of complicated work.  The woman who was there was an excellent worker who could be counted on to get all the work completed so the customer could get the best service.  She had a monotone voice and was not a smily person.  When someone asked to speak with me to complain, I explained that to them she might seem a bad choice for the job.  I also told them I could put others who had a better voice or personality on the job but they would not be able to complete all the work timely and without errors so in the end they would not get the best timely results.  Once I explained this, all understood and choose to have faster service rather than  a chirpy smily person who didn't get the work done right or as fast!!   When others filled in, it always took help from other workers to complete the work timely and correct the errors.

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Too often, people think that having the perfect employee who can do it all and be all is a snap - these people should be available by the dozen, so there's no reason for an office to have less than optimum staff.

Wrong.

The running of a business and/or office is NOT All About the Public All the Time. It needs to be about the business just as much, or more, or there is a domino affect. I tend to agree that many times, and in general, those who are "people people" are not detail-oriented or time-sensitive.

I certainly have experienced this in my working life. Good PR employees do not get the actual work done, they often don't do anything but schmooz for 8 hrs, leaving all the other employees to actually *work.* And customers to complain about timeliness, errors, etc.

[sandraskates]

I honestly didn't expect this thread to lead to such in-depth discussion and input.

Today's follow-up:

When I walked in there was a commotion in the front lobby so I was directed right away into an exam room.

Whilst waiting in the exam room a longtime employee came in to say hello and meet our new dog. And – I swear this was random - she started talking about a bad customer service experience she had. So I asked her what she recommended about discussing yesterday's experience; her opinion was that I should let the owner vet know via a phone call. (Don't stop reading yet.)

Since a different woman did my billing today I was able to listen to the admin receptionist interactions with callers and customers and they were somewhat pleasant.

The lobby had calmed down and I took the suggestions from several of you posters to “break the ice.” I walked up to her counter to ask about a photo on the wall and our exchange warmed up a bit.

I left with a somewhat more positive perception of her and thinking if perhaps she had a bad perception of me then maybe I chipped away at that.

I will hold off on talking to the owner for now.

I do disagree that one can't have a chit-chat trait and a head-for-paperwork trait, because we balance that in my workplace every day (even in the accounting dept). External and Internal customer service is our number 1 demand from our director.

Lastly, my sick kitty is doing much better today; thanks for the well wishes!

[Kalli]

We took our pets to our original vet for almost 20 years.  One day I was waiting in a line to buy dog food and right as it was my turn to finally approach with my purchase, a man walked in, went right up to the receptionist, told her he was in a hurry and needed something and she allowed him to cut in front of me, buy his item and be on his way before she waited on me.

I don't care to be treated that way, so I switched vets.  I am so happy with my new vet.  Her personality and demeanor around my pets is loving and kind.  And her receptionists are very nice.  Her business is in the next town so it takes longer to get there but I'm ok with that.

If I'm going to spend a ton, and I've spent quite a bit due to having health issues with my purebred sheltie, I'm going to go where folks are knowledgeable AND polite.