Category Archives: People You Pay

Asking a bit too much of your customers…

Our dog Eva is a sweetie with some … issues. She’s a champion puller and has some serious dog aggression problems. We’ve been working with a behaviorist, and making great progress. Our relationship with the behaviorist is cordial at best, and downright frosty at worst. She’s a bit abrasive and  makes really weird comments about other people (“I think that guy down the block is drunk” or “Maybe Eva is scared of that fat man” (referring to a girl walking towards us.)  She also has a habit of kind of making proclamations and exclaiming that she had told us information previously (“I’m not early, our appointment was always at 7:15!” Sure lady, and we were always at war with Eastasia.) Also, long unanswered silences. So, she’s a little off, but Eva loves her and her methods seem to be working.

We just finished a lesson about two hours ago, and I was sacked out on the couch watching a Suze Orman when my phone rang. It was the trainer/behaviorist. She asked if I had a minute to talk about her Cuckoo Client. Of course. So, she proceeds to tell me this story about a client of hers that she thinks is a little “off” (hello pot, meet the kettle) and she has been involved in an email back-and-forth regarding a payment discrepancy.

I begin thinking that she is telling me all of this because maybe the woman is conducting a smear campaign? Maybe online? I did talk to the behaviorist about online reputation, social media, marketing, etc.  in a previous conversation.

So, she finishes up the story by saying that she doesn’t have time for this kind of back and forth and she told the woman she couldn’t make the next appointment because her aunt has been hospitalized or something. She says the woman wished her a good Easter and asked when the next appointment would be.

Okay …

So then the trainer asks  if I wouldn’t mind giving this woman a call and telling her that she has been hospitalized or something.

…

What?

I clarify. “You want me to call one of your clients?”

The trainer, obviously a master of psychology, apparently senses my hesitation and quickly says that it’s not a big deal, she just figured she would ask since we spoke about this during our session.

I am totally taken aback.

I tell her that I’m sorry I can’t help, I’m just not comfortable with it and would rather not get involved. She starts telling me how it’s nothing, because its not worth her time, this isn’t a big deal. Almost berating me for my apology.

I try another tact. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this situation.” Another berating – “this isn’t something to apologize for, this isn’t a big deal.” Not “sorry for asking” or anything. Then she starts going into how the only reason she called me was because we talked about this during our session. I tell her that I have no recollection of discussing any client of hers during our session, other than a fat pug she worked with earlier in the day. She accuses me of not paying attention to her, but “that’s okay.”

I am totally, totally weirded out. I confirm our appointment for next week, and we hang up. I also want to make sure she has my payment correct in her records.

So, to recap

  • Someone I employ to help me and my dog revealed that she lies to clients (“I’m hospitalized”)
  • Sees nothing wrong with asking clients to call other clients for her
  • Apparently doesn’t feel she can make these calls on her own
  • Either was refused by or didn’t ask her intern for this assistance
  • Likes to accuse me for random things
  • And is really, really, really awkward.

I don’t know what to do. I can find a new trainer (and have one last session with her, since I am pre-paid), or just accept that she’s nuts and keep working with her until my pup seems rehabbed or … well, that’s about it.

But seriously? How do these things keep happening to me?

Update: I realized I had to fire this woman. The more I thought about it, the crazier and crazier this got. So, I called her this morning. Long story short – when she called me, she thought she was calling her intern. She was appropriately horrified, appalled and apologetic. In fact, she was looking for a new intern, because she couldn’t figure out why the intern didn’t remember the conversation and would refuse to do this for her. She was also confused why the intern would say “so, I’ll see you next week.” All in all – oh my god.

We still agreed to end the relationship, she ripped up the check, and I have  a new person coming in a week who sounds a lot more balanced. And is bringing therapy dogs!

Only me, people. Only me.

When Customer Service Counts (Medical Edition)

I like my doctor. He is thorough, patient, works late hours and most importantly – takes my insurance. But, I am thinking about dropping him. Why? His front office.

It’s a small office. As in, there is a doctor and one front-office staff member. So, I expect some amount of ridiculousness and delays, but that’s the price you sometimes pay for personalized service.  But lately, I just don’t know how much I can take.

I called for a prescription refill and I was really pleased to realize that the receptionist knew who I was and was more than happy to call the pharmacy. I then asked if she could ask the doctor for an additional prescription for a cream that I wanted.   Nothing inherently embarrassing about it, and she asked me to spell it. Then I realized that the crackly sound probably wasn’t a bad connection. I asked if I was on speaker. She laughed, kept me on speaker and said “Yeah, I’m multitasking.”  I asked her to take me off and she complied. The next time I speak to my doctor directly, I will mention it, but I don’t have a lot of faith in anything changing.

In fact, I had a scheduled appointment last week at 3:30. The same receptionist called me at 2:00 and asked if I could come early. Not a problem! I asked when. She said “2:05.” I explained how insane that was, and we agreed 2:45. I got there 5 minutes earlier than than that, and then waited in the waiting room until 3:15.  I told the doc what happened, and he apologized. I mean, I could see what happened (she called lots of people to fill the schedule and more than expected complied) but when you ask someone for a favor, do them one as well and treat my time as valuable. I like this doctor, but if a friend recommended someone else to me – I would drop my allegiance just like that.

It’s not just humans. I got the new pup and I was calling a bunch of recommendations that friends gave me for vet offices. I had a brief rundown of questions, but the truth is – I selected the doc almost entirely by how responsive and friendly the front office staff was to me.

I have two world-class emergency rooms near my home. Both have fabulous doctors, but only one has a really great waiting room with semi-private alcoves and private TVs and a loudspeaker that is clear. Guess which one I will choose every time? (I am the only one in my group of friends with a car, and I have an extraordinary klutzy family – I have spent a good deal of time in ERs.)

The skills of being a great doctor may have very little to do with running a great “front of house” or being a great manager – except unless you are as pheonomonal as Greg House, it’s a skill worth learning. Or at the very least, recognizing that you stink at being the CEO of your practice, and hiring someone great who is a fantastic manager and understands the importance of putting people first.

Maddening Customer Service Day

07metrocard.1.largeI love good customer service. I manage a small customer service department, I read almost countless blogs about great service, bad service, CS impact on the bottom line, CS as marketing – whatever. And I don’t expect excellence everywhere (although I certainly appreciate it when I get it!) but what I really, really can’t stand is when a customer service experience that could have been just average actually makes my life more difficult. Like today’s series of incredibly irritating events.

Lately my Metrocard (NYC’s transit pass-type thing) has been working on the bus, but not the subway. It’s obviously defective in some way, so I called WageWorks to see if I can resolve the issue. WageWorks is the company that my company uses for TransitCheck or whatever the tax-deductible travel thing is. Anyway, the way it works is that WageWorks issues me a “Commuter Card” which is like a debit card that I can use to purchase Metrocards, railroad tickets, etc.  So, I bought the Metrocard from the MTA using my Commuter Card.

When I called yesterday, I had this long conversation with a rep at WageWorks who was very nice. I explained my situation several times, and she said that she would issue me a replacement monthly card. I was confused by that, since they never issued me a Metrocard, so a replacement wouldn’t make sense. I confirmed that she was sending me a Metrocard, and said that I would use the balance on my Commuter Card (from an HR nightmare story from years ago) that I had in order to purchase a Metrocard in the meantime, since my replacement won’t get here for 3 weeks.

Fine. Annoying, but my solution seemed to make sense. So, as I went into the subway last night and tried to use my Commuter Card (which has at least $95 on it) to purchase my temporary Metrocard ($45) it kept being declined. I had to buy a cheap-o card out of my own pocket in order to get home and back to work this morning.

I get in to work, and call WageWorks to figure out why my card is being declined. Both the new rep and her supervisor explained to me that they were sorry, but the representative must have misunderstood me, and she cancelled my Commuter Card, and was mailing me a replacement. I was apparently supposed to call the MTA to have the defective card replaced. Which makes sense, but being told that yesterday would have been nice. So, since it was obvious that I didn’t need a new Commuter Card, since mine worked perfectly fine until this woman turned it off, through no instruction of my own, since I even told her that I would be using it later that day to purchase another Metrocard – it made sense that they could just turn it back on, right? Wrong. Not only could they not do that, but they couldn’t expedite the card they were sending me. All they could offer was a “sorry” and “if you have to buy something, call us to ask for a form, then fax it in, then we will reimburse you.”

To recap – when I called them yesterday I had a debit card with almost $100 of my own money on it for transit expenses and a defective Metrocard. By the time I got off the phone with them, I had a useless piece of plastic and a defective Metrocard.

I called the MTA and they gave me instructions to “find a station agent to get an envelope” and mail in my defective card.  By the way, I have never seen a station agent. Apparently, any envelope will do. I think/hope.  A new card will be mailed to me in … you guessed it – two to three weeks.

Wageworks offered me the mailing address of their Executive Escalation Department, but since I am sure that will also take two to three weeks, I try calling them. The rep there said they don’t normally take calls, but she will try to have someone get back to me within 48 hours. Defeated but hopeful, I gave her my cell number.

I take my cell phone out of my pocket, to find that the battery is totally drained. Which it shouldn’t be. It especially shouldn’t be since this is a brand new phone and battery because my battery would totally randomly drain on my old phone, so Verizon recently replaced the whole thing (two days before my warranty expired!) So then I called Verizon up. The super-friendly guy said that this was not a reported issue with this phone, and he suspects that the problem wasn’t my phone or battery, but my charger.  He was shocked I didn’t bring that in with me when I had my phone replaced, or that they didn’t ask to see or test it. So, he thinks thats the problem, and now I have to bring in my charger to be tested. If it fails the test, I have to buy another one. It’s not covered by warranty. I don’t even want to think about what happens if the charger is fine. Probably another very long, angry post.

So, while this is going on I charge the phone using my friend’s charger. In the span of one or two hours, I have a missed call. You guessed it – from the Executive Escalation Department at Wageworks. So for now, phone tag. Hopefully I will have a happy resolution to report on both counts by tomorrow.

Update: Michelle at Wageworks has been in touch with me all day. She was really great, and was trying to figure out if they could reverse the cancellation, or something else. When all was said and done, the outcome is that they will overnight a check to my office a refund of my balance (the $95) , so that I could use that money to buy a Metrocard.  She is also having that Commuter Card express delivered, so that would be here on Friday. And then, life should continue as normal.

What drives me nuts is how great and effective Michelle was. Why couldn’t the rep and the supervisor have been this helpful? Not empowered? Not motivated?

Unrelated to Wageworks – I’ll just buy a new charger somewhere. If that doesn’t work, I am defecting and buying a iPhone.

Quality People

Frank and I met with our former landlord to hand over keys, get back the deposit check and just generally give a handshake and say goodbye.  Despite our issues with the apartment, the landlord himself was a great guy – friendly, responsive and just an overall mensch. If he owned other properties, we would absolutely rent from him again.We were talking about his attempts to find a new tenant, and about some quirks with the apartment and he was talking about how much he loved us and was sad to see us go, and wanted to find more “quality people.”

I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something about this bugged me. If I was a landlord, I would also want “quality people” – someone you think will pay the rent on time, not trash the place, not drive the neighbors crazy, etc.  So, I don’t blame the guy, and I don’t really think its borne out of racism, but I suppose it is classist. Which makes sense, to a certain degree – because you want someone from an economic class that you think would be able to pay the bills (and get past the crazy co-op board that you have to be approved by, even for renters).  And I think that if he got interviewed someone and got the sense that the person would have loud parties and a stream of guests, he wouldn’t rent to him or her – even if the bank account dwarfed his own. So, I get what he is saying – and I am proud that Frank and I are “quality people” but … still. Maybe the phrases just echoed of racism that wasn’t present here, but the same words could be used to exclude euphemistic “less desirables”.

In another awkward moment, he was telling us about a couple that was going to take the place but backed out at the last minute, and he was surprised, because they were real “quality people.” As an example of their high caliber, he said he loved that even though they were engaged, the man would live there alone until they got married in November, when she would then move in. He remarked that he and his wife didn’t vacation together until their honeymoon. What was weird and awkward, is that he was renting to Frank and I, an unmarried couple, for three years – and holding us up as a standard of “quality people.”

What were we supposed to say? “Yup, those guys seem like really upstanding people! Living together before marriage certainly shows a decay in society.”  Or, “Yay for ‘traditional values’!” Because there is nothing I love more than  when old-fashioned customs are paraded and lauded, even though most likely, this display of “morality” is probably a wink-wink-nudge-nudge thing.

I don’t know. But it was a little sad to shut the door for the last time. But these quality people have moved on to bigger and brighter things. With a parking spot.

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