Stop Treating Service Workers Like Trash

“This is why you go to college, so you don’t have to work here.”

A customer said that to his daughter in front of me one day as I was helping them choose a backpack during the back-to-school rush.

I felt powerless. I clenched the pen in my hand. I wanted to jump over the counter and punch that customer in his fat head. But, of course, I didn’t.

As the Store Manager, I kept my cool, acted like I didn’t hear him, and kept working. That was five years ago; these days, I may not have had the self-restraint to bite my tongue.

They look down on you; you can feel it with every fiber of your being.

Running retail stores for over twenty years gave me a window into the human psyche. Customer service is an up-front, immersive study of what makes people tick.

It’s always apparent when a customer has never worked a service job.

They can be rude, entitled, and impatient.

They look down on you; you can feel it with every fiber of your being. They expect to be worshiped simply because they walked into your building.

It took years of practice for me not to say, “I’m sorry,” to appease these people.

Stop Rewarding Bad Behavior

Madison Sasser published an article, The Customer Isn’t Always Right, and let me tell you, it was accurate.

She works as a restaurant server, and unfortunately, she has to deal with these entitled, rude humans.

“He wanted me to cry. He wanted me to beg him for forgiveness. He probably wanted free dessert.” — Sasser

Not only that, but her boss made it worse.

The rude guest complained to corporate, so they said they “had to write her up.”

No, they didn’t.

I don’t think I ever wrote anyone up over a customer complaint. Customers are not always right. They are just humans with emotions running high; they occasionally have superiority complexes.

If my associate had really messed up, we discussed how the situation could’ve been handled better and what to do next time. A write-up typically doesn’t solve a problem. Before you jump in my comments - yes, of course, you have to write people up sometimes but I only used them when I really had to.

By the time I quit retail, if a customer called my bosses to complain about my store, my bosses were most likely annoyed with the customer for wasting their time. They'd shrug it off.

Nothing is the Same

Since the COVID pandemic, the general public has skewed increasingly hostile. It’s shocking to see the evolution firsthand.

Airline passengers made National news as flight attendants were forced to tape unruly passengers to their seats. In retail and restaurants, it’s not much better. No one at work should have to deal with such nonsense. However, customers in buildings can be kicked out (unlike airplanes).

That’s happening more often, but perhaps not enough.

Leaders need to protect their staff. Your customers should not be allowed to treat those who work for you like trash. Stand up for your employees. Begin practicing today.

“I understand you’re upset about the wait, but we will not accept the inhumane treatment of our staff. You may be more comfortable in another restaurant.”

Why would you even want their business if someone is being rude, demeaning, or threatening?

On the rare occasion, I had a customer tell me they were “never coming back,” I would think, “Yes! Victory! Bye.”

Customers like that are never worth it.

Act Right or Make Your Own Dinner

America likes to hide her caste system, but she has one, and service workers often fall to the bottom.

For some reason, if you work in customer service, people often think you’re an idiot with no education. Nothing could be more untrue. I know service workers with Masters’s degrees.

The truth is most people could not handle a job in customer service, but their too ignorant to know it. Because they don’t know anything about it, they assume it’s easy.

The more leaders we have that will advocate for their people, the better. Customers need to be held accountable for their bad behavior — not rewarded.

We will not stand for it anymore. Act right, or make your own dinner.

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Hey, I'm Kit! For two decades, I thrived leading retail teams, building customer connections, and inspiring sales teams. Now, I ghostwrite for the SaaS Retail Tech industry, channeling my people-first approach into powerful content.

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(This article was first published in An Injustice! on Medium in February, 2023)