People providing services cannot take any criticism nowadays

[giah]

I work in a role where I deal with customers. It's a B2B role but customers can be pretty annoying and critical. They often don't listen properly and are resume things / don't read contracts and then have a go at me about it. I think I handle it quite well. I usually let them get their frustrations out, tell them I'll look into the issue they're having and then schedule time to speak to them and talk them through whatever the issue is, calmly explaining our position and theirs and what can be done to remedy their problem.

I DO NOT immediately tell them that ' I told them when they signed up, or that it's in the contract, they didn't read properly '. I let them have their grievance and then work out a way to break it to them gently, if it was indeed something they overlooked and wherever possible I try to remedy it without them needing to spend more money with me etc.

I'm just giving the example to highlight that I know how it is to deal with a disgruntled customer.

However some service providers we have in our home, builders / plumbers / decorators etc etc just cannot take any criticism whatsoever and as soon as you speak up about something you're unhappy with, they just start blaming you AND charging more money immediately too.

Example - something fitted recently and was told that it would be a super quiet unit- however it's not, because of the way it's been installed - which I had apparently been told. I had not been told.

Nothing in writing either that this would be quite loud. When asked if there's anything that can be done to solve the issue, I was told that it was in fact already explained to be it was loud so not much can be done. This is categorically untrue. The person got super defensive immediately when they saw I was upset about it and went straight into defensive and attacking mode. I kept it cool but explained I didn't appreciate immediately being blamed for the issue.

Now the person has gone away and apologised for their behaviour and is going to try to solve the issue because it categorically isn't a job well done and the person knows this and recognises it,

How about when there's a disgruntled customer, you just listen to their concerns rather than just straight up attacking / being defensive and blaming them for poor work ?

I did wonder how it would have gone if I was a male unhappy customer.

I find this kind of behaviour time and time again. People go straight in for the attack, rather than just listening and taking it on the chin at a first instance and just letting customer voice their concerns. That's how I deal with my customers.

I was not rude, I just made it clear that I wasn't happy with the service provided so far and wondered if it could be improved.

Do you think this is more about the audacity of a woman criticising a man's work?

Definitely

Yep agree

I work in customer service

I spoke to consultant secretary recently and she was so blunt and abrupt and just came across really unhelpful. In the end I told her she was coming across quite blunt and not very helpful.
She went into super defensive mode, denied everything and it was just a really difficult conversation in the end.

All I wanted was for her to come across a bit better and more helpful.

I think people are so tight for money these days that they massively resent it when they've paid money for something and it turns out not what was expected. People are also tight for time so probably don't read the small print as much as they should. Couple that with customer service being pretty shit these days (not everywhere but too many places) and it's enough for things to get more heated than they need to.

I normally react pretty calmly when things go wrong but recently I got into quite a heated phone conversation where a particular product has been awful and the service when I brought this up was dismissive and awful. They offered a credit note but I 100% didn't want this because why would I want to use a company that had such awful products and service again? I wanted a partial refund rather than a partial credit note and it was refused. I was pretty angry as it was over £300 which is a huge amount to me.

This happened to me when I queried the finish on a sanded floor. I’d paid the guy a set price to do various renovations in the room and he was pretty good but I think also keen to get it finished in a week. He’d sent me an email saying he was finished and had put the keys back through the door. I’ve sanded floors myself and he just hadn’t finished the last bit off properly- black streaks . I rang him and gently challenged- he started by claiming it was the fault of the floorboards and then said it was because he didn’t have a big enough sander. I pointed out that was his responsibility. Eventually he agreed to come back and have another go and did it properly! I did the disappointed teacher voice with him and it worked!

You’re not unreasonable you’re spot on and it’s getting silly.