So today, once again, I was faced with the dilemma of accepting rudeness by professionals or just let it go since I needed them to provide some service.
How the rudeness started…
You see I had to visit a local bank branch to request a username and password to have access to their online banking services.
After a few minutes of being ignored by clerks, who were chatting or scrolling down on their cellphones, I decided to seek help.
Isn’t it amazing when no one approaches you to ask if you need help? I mean, why is that? Anywhere else you go, such as a store, a cafe, a restaurant, a gas station, and so on, there is someone to service, apart from self-service places. Similarly, a bank is there to provide services and handle your money. Why aren’t they in a hurry to help you as soon as you walk in?
So, I baldly approach a clerk on her desk, she was trying to hide the fact that she was typing on her cell behind a printer. I stated my purpose but I had to wait for her to get ready. She barely spoke, I had a file with papers on the desk so she decided to help herself without asking me. She cut me off a couple of times. After 30 min of total rudeness time came to sign, she just pointed at the space provided to sign on each paper without even saying anything.
What I did…
I was ready to make her life miserable and make a scene. Luckily for me, I wasn’t alone and my partner stopped me from doing what I do best. Putting people in their place.
This particular encounter is one of many. We always tell ourselves to just ignore the rudeness, be the better person. “You depend on them doing their job,” we say, “they have had a bad day”, and so on. But do we really need to justify this behavior? Would we just “take it” from a waiter at a cafe? No, we would just get up and leave.
So, why do we accept it by clerks in any field? Do we consider them as if they are doing us a favor? No, they aren’t. They are providing a service and customer satisfaction applies to them too.
Needless to say, I would never go back to this branch and my overall opinion of the bank itself is negative, to say the least.
Share your thoughts on the issue by commenting.
Have you had to deal with rudeness on a professional level?
How did you handle it?