Rudeness

Study says that 58% of customers will take their business elsewhere because of a rudeness, even if it costs them more money to do so...

In a survey of 1281 business professionals across the United States... The findings are reported below with the percentage of respondents replying. Numbers add up to more than 100% due to respondents providing multiple answers.


Is rudeness in business:
increasing -- 80%
decreasing -- 11%
same -- 09%

The most rude behaviors reported by respondents are:
Telephone rudeness -- 62%
Long, abrupt holds -- 27%
Unreturned phone calls -- 24%
Voice mail mazes -- 11%
Indifference, inattentiveness, "don't care" attitude of employees -- 39%
Ignoring customers and conducting private conversations in person or over the phone while others are waiting -- 36%
Time abuses such as long waits, long lines, employee lateness to work, slow response -- 34%
Interruptions, cutting off conversation or dismissing discussion -- 22%
Abrupt voice tone and rude language -- 19.5%
Lack of appreciation for employees or customers, no "thank you's" -- 8%

What is your response to rude behavior?
Take business elsewhere even if out of way or higher price -- 58%
Write letter or document -- 42%
Talk to supervisor or manager -- 25%
Ignore it either because don't want to confront or consider people have bad days -- 21%

What are the behaviors you most admire, appreciate, and respect?
Friendly, quick greeting -- 60%
Helpful, even if not your job -- 39%
Appreciation of customer, coworkers, employees -- 38%
Honesty, integrity, sincerity -- 22%
Promptness, fast service, short waits -- 21%
Follow-up with letters or calls, honor commitments -- 21%
Respect of ideas and opinions -- 17%

What is your response to these behaviors?
Go out of way to conduct business -- 42%
Work harder at job -- 31%
More loyal as customer and employee -- 25%
Refer others -- 18%

Rude behavior ruins business. The costs to correct rude behavior are minor compared to the exponential benefits. If companies scrutinize how their phones are handled, how alert, interested, and attentive employees are to customers, how they show appreciation to customers and employees, and how quickly they respond to honor people's time, they will have solved many of their problems. They will plug the leaks that drain a company of its performance and profits.

Here's the kicker...


























This survey was conducted in 1999. Do you think things have gotten any better since then? Or to focus the question even more... Do you think things have gotten better since then in your company?

I Knew I wasnt the only one that talked to myself in here

So these BMW driving, "it's my baby" customers can walk all over me, and i gotta kiss their ass? Sorry. I'm polite to those who are polite to me, when some jagoff comes in and starts telling me how to do my job, well, there's the door, don't let it hit you on the way out.

if customers expect me to be polite then it's only normal for me to expect them to be polite too. if they come in with an attitude they can expect an attitude right back. they come in in a positive mood they'll get one in return. i'm not kizzin' anyone's azz

I try to be as polite and as professional as I can, but if a customer is an AZZ I don't put up with it, i don't need the money that bad

I'm just posting the research, not telling you guys what to do...

Run your shops as you see fit. Just something to look at if sales are down, this may be the reason.

Better to earn a little less money and still have self respect.

Someone being an arse isn't going to hurt my feelings one bit and their money is as good as the next guys. There are defnitely limits to what any person can tolerate, but I'm going to do with in reason what I need to do to make money.

I'd personally rather bite my lip for a few minutes, get their money, and then have a 30 second pow-wow with everyone else making fun of the idiot that just left and get on with life with a couple more bucks in my wallet.

What good does it do anyone, especially a business owner, to put people in their place? I'm here to tint windows and do my job, not tell people who and what they are just to even the score because then I'm only as bad as they are. Be the better person, take their money with a smile, and you win. Those kind of people know what they are and what everyone thinks of them, so it does no good to try and prove a point that is pointless.

They get wot they giv, in my shop, I have kicked c##tstomers out for being overthe top. which one do you choose?????????????????????

What if someone comes into your shop and your employee is rude? If you are a one man show then you know how customers are being treated, but what if you have someone working the counter while you are installing or doing other things? Granted, their are rude customers out there and we all have our tolerance levels. But this is not about rude customers.

That is why I put this in the shop owners forum. I think some of you guys are missing the point and getting your shorts in a bunch... It is the end of the year, and when you review the year end numbers and are wondering why things are not as good as you might have expected, this might be a contributing factor. Shop owners that have employees might be losing customers to their competition because of the way their employees treat customers.

Deescalating an intense customer really isn't that hard to do 98% of the time. Granted, there are those few exceptions that they just can't be handled in a civil way on that given day, but given the right choice of words and your demeanor towards the customer, and you can be good buddies in a matter of moments.

You can read a customer just by the way he walks into your shop if he/she is happy, sad, mad, looking for a fight, etc. Quick wits and you starting the conversation in the opposite direction of what it was possibly going to be before they can start a fight keeps them at bay. Explaining things to them as well helps, but you have to do it in a way that leaves little or no room for question of your ability of the outcome of the install, the warranty, the price, etc.

Doesn't work 100% of the time by any means, but is very effecitive in keeping a good majority of them at ease.

Yeah, I may suck up at times to a customer, but why the hell not? I just lower the pride flag, let them empty their wallets into my pocket because that's what I'm there for....to make money. It isn't a matter of bending over for them even though it may feel like that at times, it's about making money. My self respect goes up a notch each time I handle a customer like we are talking about in a positive way even if they walk out the door after it all, because I know in the end I'm a better person than they are for conducting myself in a proper manner as best I could.

To each his own, but this is my attitude and the way I handle every person who walks through my door regardless of their intentions. And I don't lose any sleep over it, dwell or cry about what happened. It just becomes a distant memory and at times, a great laugh to tell the family when I get home, but I'm the one who's laughing through it all....not the customer.

Sorry for helping jacking your thread, I wasn't even paying attention to the purpose of this thread . Back on track.

Today a customer calls, and from his voice I can tell he is an older gentleman who most likely spent time in the military, and he is used to telling people what to do. He tells me he is coming in to check out my product and if he likes it he will be getting it done today. He says he called earlier in the week and that he told me he MIGHT be coming by on Wednesday and if he likes what he sees then he'll get his car tinted. So politely I tell him that he can come and check out our work, but we are full for the day and that our next opening is on Friday. He sounded annoyed and tells me that since he told me he was coming to check things out that he had an appointment, I felt like giving him a piece of my mind. But we both comprimised and he came in and ended up making the Friday appointment. I guess a little patience and giving the customer a little of your time pays.

to each his own - this is just like the tint question

we all have our own ways of handling things and we all percieve them to be right

In my humble opinion I do what alot of you guys do, if the person is a frustrated fussy Pr I try to ease them along and
sooth them, if its a snot nosed prima donna or just some total jerk -phuck it right back at ya
and get lost= those are the kind you end up losing money on anyway

You guys need to re-read. I'm not talking about a self-employed business owner... Just trying to help those with employees reevaluate things. Aren't we here to help one another?

no big deal dude...we just all have different ideas on when/if rudeness is necessary at all.

i also happen to be one who thinks the customer is rarely, if ever, right. in fact, the majority of the time they don't know shiat. and our shop's the most successful in our area. so, i guess we're still doing something right. like dodging bullets that cost companies money.

I would love to walk in to your shop and see that printed on a sign over the cash register

i can post a picture of it if you want

I started doing upholstery work cause the MF B!tch that owns the shop down the street was very rude on the phone.

I was as completely nice as I've ever been, but I got a very short and
rude response.

After I not so politely told her to go back up north and phuck herself.

I bought a sewing machine and have taken at least 2 of her dealer accts. and a body shop.

The b!tch can't even sew!

ok but no photochoping

I am rude to people who deserve it. I have work coming out of my ears and not enough people to do it anyways. My latest comment today was a person complaining about the time it was taking to do her window, 30 minutes before I told her it would be done, "You shouldn't have let them break your window and you wouldn't be waiting here" She was a female dog anyways.

yup had mine today - oh well there one in every crowd

another instant classic huh Mr

I haven't had many rude ones. Gruff old geezers sometimes but they're ol' softies by the time they get out of the shop. The snoots I just drool about how beautiful their car is Melts um. But one of my former employees was rude to one of my customers. It was nothing to get upset about. His (my employee) demeanor brought it on... But he was a helluva tinter. So I kept him away from customers after that. I'll handle them.
When I am the customer, I don't like to be treated rudely. I was in the DMV waiting in the loooong line for my daughter to get her drivers license last week. Two of the four clerks up there were on the phone with family while we waited. I could tell by the conversations. It pissed me off. But it's not like I could take my business elsewhere.

The poor lady in customer service at Verizon. I feel so sorry for her. Just doing her job but this guy got so mad when she said, " Sorry it was obviously dropped in water...see here on the inside?" The customer throws a fit. She looked at me, three customers back and I rolled my eyes. She smiled and from then on every time I go in there to pay my bill she makes a point to speak to me over the counter. She really doesn't know me. But she remembers.

Oh man, the DMV is the worst. I always try to be so nice to them and most of the time they wont even smile at you.

We registered and changed the title on Mom's Century when she was here at Thanksgiving. The title arrives in the mail a couple weeks ago and not only is my name wrong but the mileage is 137.000 instead of 37,000. I called and was told due to privacy I had to come down there in person. So off I went with every possible piece of paper they might ask for. She said there was no records on microfilm yet to see how I had signed the title to proove the name was wrong. Had my middle innitial ever been R ? No never. I showed her divorce decrees and birth certificates. Still looked at me dubiously. Well what about the mileage I asked. She said it really wasn't a big deal because in '06 it'll be exempt. Well YES it is to me! Who's going to believe that a '96 Buick has that few miles when I sell it if the title has an extra hundred thousand! Yeah suuuuure the title is wrong... No reallly! It only has 37,000 miles !

And what if I had lied and said it had fewer than the actual miles? That's a felony, she says!

Come back after the first of the year she says. Yeah so it'll be exempt.

They are so arrogant and will not believe anything they are told, yetthey can do that to you and not bat an eye...where do they get these people?

I stood there at her counter and checked out all her stuff when she went to go look in the microfilm. Her name on the plaque sounded familiar and I wondered if she was a friend of mines' mom and made a mental note to ask her when she came back....up to that point when she left to go look, she seemed sweet. I also noticed one of those little statues that people give friends was an wannabe sexy old lady that had a sign that said "I'm still hot...it just comes in flashes now"
I changed my mind about asking her if she was Alan's mom and really didn't want to argue too much about it after seeing that statue.
Maybe I'll get a different lady when I go back.

oh holy fockin' shiat....how did i miss that one?

yup Tx dvm's are probably one of the worse
You ought to try calling one of them in Austin -there phone manners are not any better

Did they do a survey on how many customers tinters turn away due to rudeness and I know how to tint I just dont want to do it asswipes?

I leave the dmv came back another day, get a different person and all is fine! How can one person not get anything done and some can?

I believe you said it yourself.....................DMV

k!ll'em with kindness and take their money.if that dont work tell them to hit the fecking road

was this rude? i tint a couple windows on a turck practically giving the guy a tint lesson as he sits in a chair a couple feet from me. i explain everything while he asks and asks then follow up with care instructions and a paper i give out explaining everything from not touching for a week to manufacturer film imperfections. he comes back the very next day ( basically the tint had only the night in the cold desert to do its drying) and he starts asking about little bubbles in his windows. i didnt lose it but im was like "look man i told you" and then camed myself and did a film test. he couldnt say anything after that. but my partner mentioned the i told you part and i didnt think i was that bad seeing how much i already went over it with him.