I swear that customers are just getting more rude and unreasonable lately. They seem not to realize that staff shortages are everywhere right now, and they blame the staff who does show up to work. It's been driving me more than a little crazy lately.
Today we had two separate clients tell us that we had to hire more people so we could book their services at the spa. As if it were just that easy - it's not like estheticians and massage therapists grow on trees. These people need to have graduated from registered programs, and the massage therapists need to have federal and provincial licensing in place. None of it is that easy to come by, and due to COVID shutting down pretty much everything there are not a lot of new estheticians and registered massage therapists being churned out of the schools. So, where the fuck are we supposed to get more staff from?
Add to that the fact that there are jobs out there that pay more with a lot less stress on the body - we have lost a couple folks to the CRA call center as a result of this. Plus government jobs usually provide somewhat decent extended health benefits compared to anything that my work provides.
But it's the same way pretty much everywhere right now. Customers are expecting absolutely ludicrous things, things that they would never have even thought to demand prior to even the first shut-down. Ask them for patience, and they lose their ever-loving minds! I've given up counting how many times I've asked for some patience from a client only to have them start yelling at me, telling me that the pandemic has been hard on everyone and that it's no excuse. Yet if you were to go to their jobs and throw the same kind of tantrum they'd tell you to be patient with them. Ugh.
And fewer people are returning to minimum wage jobs. I don't blame them! With how shitty they get treated by the customers AND management, I can only wonder how long some of these places will manage to stay open.
I've read a lot of articles about how restaurant managers are having a harder time finding staff, and one of the most common comments I've seen in regards to these is that staff needs to be paid better, and management needs to have their employees' backs. All too often I've seen management fawn all over rude customers despite the employee having done absolutely nothing wrong. It pisses me off to watch as an employee who has followed company policy get shit on and undermined by a simpering manager doing everything to appease the Karen-tastic guest who is only bitching because they know they can get somebody in shit for the fun of it.
For too many years customers have been able to play the 'customer is always right' card while lying and scamming to get what they want. That is the worst expression out there, and it is utterly horrible advice. By putting the customer first, the employer is ignoring the most important asset of their company - the employees. When an employee is following policy, don't throw that policy out the door simply to make the customer happy - explain WHY the policy is what it is and work out a resolution that stays within the policy guidelines. If you throw the policy out the door, that customer will feel that they can do whatever they want because management will let them get away with their bullshit all over again. It, in turn, creates a work environment where the employee feels that it is not worth their time to actually follow policy because they know that management will just bend over backwards and let the customer give it to them dry. They know that there is no support from management so why should they even try?
I am very fortunate to work for a boss who doesn't buy into the whole 'customer is always right' bullshit. With her permission I've actually fired clients over their repeated bullshit - we will not allow our staff to be treated like shit by customers as we fully recognize that it's our employees that keep the business going. We can do without a mega-bitch customer who raised a stink over us not being able to fit in a service she never booked in the first place, or lying about where they were in the past 14 days, and so on and so forth.
I've become very good at not letting those assholes bother me when they start yelling at me. Even before I became management. Now that I'm in management I can use that authority to shoot customers down. More than once I've been yelled at by a so-called client who is pissed off because they aren't scheduled for the service they wanted, and I've calmly told them that 1) I booked their service, and 2) confirmed with them multiple times what they actually wanted. Or I've gone through the system to pull up their history with us and proved them wrong about a booking they claimed they made. I know that the previous spa desk employees used to blame their mistakes on system glitches, but I've been using the same system long enough to know that it's not the system that glitches...it's them simply not doing their jobs properly.
I know that given time we will get things back up to normal with the spa and hotel, but it will be another month of dealing with utter bullshit from clients. And that is before getting into the issues with staff that we've had over the last month or so. I'm hoping the staffing issue resolves itself before I lose what's left of my mind - I think that it's gotten back to some of the ones playing their little games that their actions are only hurting their fellow employees and not the owner or the big boss. I hope that it never happens again, or that we can head it off at the pass next time this sort of thing rears its ugly head again.
In the meantime, I have to get my ass into bed shortly. I don't work for another 14 hours but the heat has me pretty sacked out and I just want to get some rest before I have to deal with another shitty day at work where I have to try hard not to track down a fellow employee and give him shit for not doing his job properly and also do more cancelation calls to let clients know that the massage therapist they were scheduled with has quit rather than get vaccinated.
Some people's children, I swear.
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