Episode Eight: Odds, Ends, Philosophies

I will elaborate at a future time on the Ohio trip.  I wish to upload photos and get some sleep in me before then. 

I am still having way too much fun with photo editor

The trip in:

-Surprisingly pretty, fall colors were sporting Mother Nature's run-way fashions of the season.  I dig it- very chic. 

-My first impression of the City of Indianapolis was very poor because the highway was closed down at 70 on my drive in, according to the man who gave me directions to get OUT of Indianapolis, because they were planting flowers... at 4pm...on a Thursday.  Yeah...

The Wedding:

-Was an amazing blend of beauty, simplicity, sincerity, and wonderful setting.  Congrats!

-Olive Garden catered, perfect.  And yes, this is shameless promotion, because if shamelessly plugging the Olive Garden could result in free food... well I will be happy to detail how much I love the breadsticks and the salad.  Now I'm hungry.

Philosophies. 

  After pulling seven hours on a road and catching a quick nap I had to work last night.  My co-worker was discussing a client who was always complaining and discussed a philosophy he has, which mirrors one of my own philosophies.  His philosophy is that if you look for good things you will always find good things. 

If you look for things that are wrong...

Carter the Cat Hates Red Bull!

 

 

 Well, you get the picture, you're going to spend your life pretty dissatisfied. 

Truth be told the lives of customer service personnel were best summed up in Kevin Smith's "Clerks".  I would like to add a few archetypes of customers from my own line of work to the mix:

-The Il-literati: A word I shall make up to coin a special breed of "illiterate" customers.  Big bold lettered signs at eye level that read "DO NOT ENTER", "STAFF ONLY", "NO SMOKING", etc do not exist for this group.  When you must explain to the illiterati that what they are doing is against property rules they act baffled and then reprimand you for not warning them.  Alas, who knew so many were illiterate? 

-The Manipulator:

Unlike this Dog Most Manipulators aren't Cute.

The manipulator is the customer that thinks they're more convincing than they are.  I'm a female staff member- but it seems that female customers will occasionally try to use the same voice they use to ploy male staff.  Saying "Pretty Please" all fore-lorn-like may work if you're under the age of 10- but if you're in your thirties give it up! 

-The Taker of the Business to the Land of Elsewhere:
The most ridiculous thing you can do to an irked customer service worker is to threaten to take your business elsewhere.  Seeing as we make the same amount of money whether the terror customer is there or not... the choice is obvious.  In fact, I had a woman threaten me with that very line last night after I had mentioned in passing that her group was being rather loud..  My reaction was essentially "alright"- neither flippant not repentant. 

Yeah- I'm heart broken that a guest that probably cost us other, more lucrative, customers through her noise levels is threatening not to come back. 

And that, was my happy moment for the day: what if the lady did not come back :D