-Excellent
Labels: budget, customer service, Monday
Labels: Copier, customer service, Library Cards, Monday, patrons, phoneMay 5, 2008
As always, having fun in the library on Monday:
On the phone with a patron:
“Ok. I just need your library card number.”
“Card number? What’s that?”
“It’s the number on your library card..”
“Oh ok. I see. 555-BOOK.”
"Umm. That sounds like the number for the main branch of our library.”
“It’s the only number on the card. I’ve got it right here in front of me.”
“Well… the number you just read, ending in BOOK, is a telephone number. The library card number is on your card. Probably on the other side….”
“That’s the only number on the card.”
“Ok….”
Then there’s the elderly patron on the copier. He’s a regular. I know the machines are confusing. I know it’s crazy of us to expect you to make your own copies, but that’s what Kinkos is for. If you don’t want to or are unable to make your own copies, please go there. I’m not a copy girl. If I make your copies for you that’s all I will have to time to do today. I can show you how to use the machine; I can’t do it for you. That what “self serve” means.
“”Well fine. Show me how it works, then.”
“You put the paper here, face-up.”
“Like this?”
“No. With the text facing up, so you can see it.”
“Here.”
“No. So you can see the writing on the paper.”
“Well I can’t figure out what you’re talking about with these crazy machines.”
“You see the picture on top? Put the paper just like the picture shows.”
“Like this?”
“No. Turn it over…. here. Fine. I’ll do it. Now hit the green button to make your copy.”
“Which button do I hit?”
“The big green one.”
“This one?”
“No. The green one. The one that says start.”
I really think he’s just messing with me to take up as much of my time as he possibly can because I wouldn’t hit the fucking copy button for him. The girl at the desk just told him to read the instructions on the lid, though. That’s what I get for trying to provide customer service. Next time I’ll be like every other disgruntled library employee and just point.
Labels: Coffee, common sense, customer service, Excellent HelpApr 18, 2008
Just a stupid thing. When a place charges as much for a single cup of coffee as I would spend to buy a pound of fresh coffee beans, I expect them to know a little bit about the procedure of serving coffee.
Such as: when I order a small black coffee, they shouldn't have to ask me twice if I want room for cream. That's what the adjective "black" was inserted for. See: service, subheading: industry. See also: Common Sense. But then, I am repeating myself. Again.
Labels: age gap, coworkers, customer service, naivety, sickApr 6, 2008
I try not to bitch about coworkers. We're all stuck working with the same shit, and it's better to just ignore whatever crap they throw at you for the sake of customer service and "getting the job done." (I'm still one of those naive workers that believes it is my job to provide excellent customer service at all costs. I'm so incredibly naive.)
But, sometimes I just get so confused. I've been working in the library for something like eight years now, and policy hasn't changed so very much that I shouldn't know what is expected of me and my coworkers while at work.
Probably the confusion is partly due to the fact that I am a good twenty years younger than most of my coworkers, and they therefor view me as little more than an idiot. Even when I have to act like a supervisor; Even when they are below me in the chain of command. (Yes. I would really rather ignore the stupid shit you do than try to put on the supervisor hat. You're not going to listen to me, anyway.)
This rant comes to you courtesy of a specific coworker who fails to come to work at LEAST one day out of every week. She doesn't always call US, but instead calls another branch and tells someone unrelated to our doings in management that she won't be in to work. So we are all sitting around OUR branch wondering where the said coworker is...... She has been told repeatedly to call our actual library and talk to the person in charge so that we know she won't be there.
One day last week she actually did call OUR LIBRARY. I answered the phone. She asked to speak to anybody but me. I told her I was the only In-Charge person working. She told me she wouldn't be in to work. She was also going to call the manager and have an excuse when she came back. Ok. I told her I would mark her off the schedule.
Problem is, when she did come back to work later in the week she confronted me and accused me of falsifying the schedule. "You wrote 'called off' on the schedule. I didn't call off. I whited it out and changed it to 'sick'."
If you "Call" into work and say that you are going to be "Off" for the day, is that not a "Call-Off?" She never once said that she was sick. (She wasn't) AND it doesn't really fucking matter to anybody what I wrote on the schedule, as long as you fill out your time sheet correctly and give whatever excuse was required of you to the manager when you got back to work. There isn't a "call-off" field on the time sheet. There IS a "sick" field. If you know what you are doing, DO IT. Don't accuse me of falsifying your schedule.
I'm out of clean laundry. Maybe I should CALL IN SICK tomorrow.
