Not if you work for someone else, apparently.
What I thought interesting were the many comments on KTVZ about how the "customer is always right," therefore the owner or manager can never respond negatively to anything a customer might do
Obviously, the customer isn't always right? I mean, no one's always right.
To me, it's more of a slogan than a reality -- no more valid than, say, "New and Improved."
No one is allowed to abuse my employees. I've told them, if someone gets completely out of line, ask them to leave the store and I'll back them up.
It's called, firing the customer.
Sure its best not to lose your temper, to ignore most behaviors. I've been both very good about this, and very bad.
A few years ago, I tried to control some of the behavior I was seeing in my store, especially by young people, and it almost always ended badly. So I quit, about 4 years ago, saying anything. I just take most of the behavior, and most of the damage, and try to leave the area where it's happening.
I mean, obviously, if the behavior is WAY over the line, I'll still try to say something, but I try to be calm and non-accusing.
Even my wife, who on the Calm scale is a 10 (while I might be a 3 or a 4) has customers who do something so outrageous that she has to deal with them.
So the incident itself doesn't surprise me -- I had imagined a lot worse than "douchebag" when I first heard the story.
What surprises me is that people think that employees should take any abuse handed them with a smile.
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What happened to that story? I can't find it on KTVZ's website.
I've heard through the grapevine that there was a lot more to it than calling somebody a douchebag, but I won't go into details because I can't confirm anything.
The story is pretty vague.
It's in the Bulletin, too.
But it sounds like you know pretty much as much as I do.
Actually if I had an employee call a customer a douchebag or equivalent That would probably be the end of their employment. Now that does not mean that the customer is always right nor that they should tolerate abusive customers. It does indicate that there is a professional way to handle abusive customers and that does not mean calling them names. An employee can terminate the conversation in a professional manner. Request that the customer leave in a professional manner. Indicate that they will not continue to participate in the discussion if the other individual is abusive, etc. Up to and including contacting the police if the person will not leave or the situation is viewed as threatening.
Losing ones professionalism only makes the situation worse.
No matter the provocation?
Even the courts recognize there is something called "fighting words."
Most retail establishments have a sign, .. "We reserve the right ... to kick your ass out"
There are assholes everywhere, but in general the nature of BIZ is to kiss a persons ass for a short-time, albeit you piss and spit in his soup back in the kitchen.
The customer is only king, where there is competition, where the customer has a choice.
In government, such as in Bend, the customer ( taxpayer ) is shit.
In retail such as micky-d or burger-slut, ... the consumer is king.
Sorry dunc I have been busy lately, too busy to play internet.
A few days ago I bought the kids a game-boy ( nintendo ), it costs about $100 USD, which of course is a fortune over here in Asia. What surprised me is its fairly authentic appears to be made in Singapore, but most interesting is it comes pre-loaded with 50,000 games, basically includes all games for all time pre-loaded. The entire model in the west is to sell cartridges to parents for $100 a pop and make sure the kid is bored of the game in 2 weeks.
Now here you can buy a gadget that is impossible for a child to be bored in a lifetime.
Why I bring this up is this product say's on the BOX, "NOT FOR RETAIL OUTSIDE OF ASIA", you see they have simply given up over here, copyright is a joke as I have always told you.
In a few weeks we have a chinese outfit releasing on $80 iTablet with WIFI, pre-loaded with 10,000 books, for $80, they want to give one to every child in Asia ( 2+ Billion? )
Here's the deal, imagine if library's were free, imagine if ever child has every textbook in history at his finger-tips? Not for download, not to buy but free today.
See my point is the USA is fucking toast.
love, buster
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