Dealing with annoyed customers is a subtle form of art. Employees must know what to say to appease them, or else they run the risk of them exploding in the store and yelling at the manager. Sometimes employees will do their darnedest to help upset clients, putting up with the shouting and the pouting without a single word of thanks.
In u/JohnDGardner’s case, finding common ground with the customer was impossible as he demanded things be done his way. For his arrogance, he got burned, literally and figuratively.
More info: Reddit
If a customer refuses to listen to you and a colleague at their own risk, there is only so far you can go to stop them
Image credits: peakpx (not the actual photo)
The poster was working as a circuit breaker tester and for one job, he had to do two different tests for each breaker
Image credits: u/JohnDGardner
The customer saw the poster doing only one test for a specific piece of equipment and demanded that he perform two tests as usual
Image credits: u/JohnDGardner
The technician tried his best to talk the customer out of the second test which would have broken the equipment, but he just wasn't having it
Image credits: u/JohnDGardner
Undiscouraged by the warnings of the poster, his colleague, and even after signing a waiver saying that he knew the risks, the customer had the test performed
Image credits: u/JohnDGardner
A mere minute later, the breaker was billowing in smoke and someone needed to run out to get a replacement breaker
The Original Poster of the story used to work as a circuit breaker tester way back when. He used to test the kind of circuit breakers that are in electrical panels at homes, but only bigger, industrial versions of them.
An important thing he details - circuit breakers may have two over-current conditions - thermal and magnetic. Most of the time, they have both, but sometimes, in special cases, things may have only magnetic, for example, fire pumps.
The poster was working with a customer representative and checking many breakers for him. When a fire pump came up, he only tested the magnetic components, but the customer demanded he check the thermals too, which it didn’t have.
The customer even signed a waiver that he knew what he was doing, and against OP’s better judgment, he demanded they start the procedure. OP, knowing they were in for a show, invited a colleague over and started testing. The testing was supposed to take 300 seconds, but smoke started billowing out of the breaker before a minute was up. The customer rep ended up not only embarrassed but also needed to run out to get a replacement breaker for the pump.
For this article, Bored Panda managed to reach out to the post’s original author, u/JohnDGardner! When asked for more details about his story, he clarified that the customer did admit that he was wrong in the end. They went so far as to even take apart the breaker in order to show the customer where the thermal component would go if there had been one.
John further mentioned that clients like the one in the story would be rare. “Almost always, the people who hired and supervised us either did know their stuff, or acknowledged that we had been brought in for our specific expertise and equipment,” he added.
Asked about the difficulties of the job, John had this to say: “The most difficult part was that often in a customer facility, access to the circuit breakers was awkward or difficult.”
Image credits: Pete (not the actual photo)
In the story they had gotten lucky as they had a test station in a spacious loading dock and electricians would bring the breakers to them. They emphasize that this setup wasn’t typical and breakers that weren’t easily accessible had to be tested in place. Getting the very heavy testing equipment where it needed to be would be a frequent challenge.
Another runner up in difficulty was the long hours, John says. As they would service industrial facilities, they had to completely halt their production while the technicians would tear the electricals apart. This would put a lot of pressure on the crew, as production needed to be resumed as fast as possible.
“Often this means a very early start, a late night, and many times over a weekend to coincide with periods of low/no production for the facility,” John finishes.
Sometimes, well-informed customers are awesome. They know what they want, they’re more open to your suggestions, and you can have fun by having a conversation with them. The flipside of that is that sometimes you get people who think that they know your entire industry way better than you.
Sometimes they’ll want to show how much more they know than you, others are just looking for that small feeling of superiority. In OP’s story, they had the chance to teach a lesson to that customer, but knowing how to make the customer feel good and sell them what they want is often more tricky than it seems.
Cedia suggests that you should avoid being angry and smile and be friendly. And if you let them talk long enough, it’s possible that they may end up buying something. Especially if it matches their sensibilities - those of a well-versed buyer.
The know-it-alls may also be unwilling to believe you without any sources, so it’s usually good to speak only the facts about the product without providing your opinion. Another good play may be to show them what it says about the product on the box, as that is often a reputable source in their eyes.
Image credits: pxfuel (not the actual photo)
It may also be very difficult to take a perceived assault from a customer, but you should remember that this isn’t personal, Customer Service Zone says. It’s likely a way for the customer to feel good about themselves, and if you try to get defensive or fight them, you’re most likely going to lose in the end.
If they make a mistake that you must correct, it’s a good idea to correct them indirectly. Instead of calling their mistake out, you may pawn it off on the manual being incorrect or a similar technicality. You could also leave some wiggle room for doubt so that they don’t feel too upset with this confrontation.
You may also win out by stroking the customer’s ego, even a little, praising their knowledge in that area. Finally, you should tread carefully, as there may come a time when the customer DOES know it all. After all, there’s no shame in making a mistake or not knowing something and owning up to it.
The post collected more than 4 thousand upvotes, with nearly 300 comments. Commenters laughed at the client rep, especially emphasizing the guy’s cluelessness for still going through with the test even after having to sign a waiver. People also enjoyed the fact that the person who touted himself as being an engineer got schooled by technicians he was looking down on, which must’ve made it difficult on the ole self-esteem.
If you’ve got interesting or funny stories about know-it-all customers who were actually clueless, share them with us and our readers in the comments!
Commenters had fun laughing at the customer, especially for having his "I'm an engineer" mindset confronted
Image credits: Douglas Paul Perkins (not the actual photo)
