Customer Reviews

Most of us, at one time or another, have held a job in which customers were encouraged to leave comments on what they thought of our service. Some of those reviews are good, some are bad, and some are downright abusive. What if we, as service providers, were allowed to review our customers? Would it make a difference in how customers behaved? Below are some samples of how the customers might be reviewed:

Mr. Brown came into the shop with a chip on his shoulder. He was determined that nothing I was going to do or say was going to be right and he was not going to be satisfied no matter what. Even though I was polite, informative, and extremely helpful, Mr. Brown was a jerk.


Ms. Smith was very sweet, but completely oblivious to everything around her. I had to repeat her order four times and she still wasn't sure what she wanted. She was so busy texting her friends that she really was not paying attention to the excellent service she received.

Mr. Jones was in a hurry, but still managed to smile at me, listen to my answers to his questions, and was not angry when my computer crashed. He understood it was not my fault, I was not doing it on purpose to hold him up, and that I brought it back up and finished his transaction as quickly as was humanly possible. Thank you Mr. Jones for realizing that customer service providers are human, too.

Do you know these customers? Have they been in your place of business recently? Have you been this customer? Those of us whose jobs are all about customer service know what it means to have good and bad reviews. We also know that at times those reviews are written in the heat of a stressful moment and reflect the customer's own, often very narrow, opinion.

Perhaps, though, if customer service providers were allowed to respond in kind to the reviews, the customers might realize they really aren't always right and kindness, and rudeness, go both ways. So often I've seen that bad customer service is a direct result of bad customers.

I know this isn't going to happen. In the world of customer service occupations, the customer is always right and we as the providers are to be kind, considerate, helpful, knowledgeable, cooperative and above all, non-judgmental. The customer is of course allowed to be none of these things.

But it is something to think about. Next time you're the customer, act as if your service provider is going to give you a review that could be shared with other businesses. Would they want you as a customer?

As I said, something to think about.