anxiety over a customer complaint

[hellohello1]

Hello,

 

I had a customer make a complaint about me today. I did everything I was supposed to do, my due dilligence, and assisted the customer as best as possible. The customer seemed satisfied when he left the store. Apparently he made a complaint afterwards to my supervisor. My supervisor was actually near me when I was assisting him and knows that I didnothing wrong, I just followed store policy which he did not like. My supervisor said that although there was a complaint, I am not in trouble and that I went above and beyond to assist him and she said it was a completely unfair complaint. She will be talking to the customer tomorrow to ask him about it but said that there will be no discipline and in fact I need to not worry about it because I did nothing wrong. She said sometimes people just like to complain and that I really need to try my best to not worry about it. However, this is the first complaint I've ever had. I've been with this company for 2 years and never had one, and I've had other customer oriented jobs and had never have one. Although I know his complaint was unjustified, it still very much bothers me ad I have quite a bit of anxiety over this. Should I just let it go? How do I do that?

 

Moreover, I applied for a promotion last week (the posting is still up for another 2 weeks) and I'm very concerned that this may hurt my chances.

[birdname]

It's doubtful that this will hurt your chances for the promotion.

It's true, this just happens, sometimes people complain for unjust reasons. You're lucky your supervisor cares enough to defend you in it. I've worked for a lot of places where people got needlessly thrown under the bus just because that was the easier thing to do.

[Kjv1611ad]

I'm sure your manager knows and completely understand that sometimes, no matter what you do, some customers are miserable people and are just LIKE THAT.

 

Customer is always right to a certain extent. I don't tolerate customers belittling my employees, and I will "fire" customers like that. I don't want to do business with them. But there is a fine line. Some people are just expressive and it could be more to do with story policy than with you personally. I do not know the entire issue but I assume you, if your manager said don't worry then don't!

 

It's hard not to take things like that personally, but there are times when either a customer is having a bad day or they are just miserable people and want to make everyone else around them miserable as well.

[SA_Guy99]

Speaking as a retail manager, I see a ton of unjust complaints forwarded to me about my staff. If there is no just cause for the complaint, why did your supervisor even tell you about it? There is no reason for you to know, as there is nothing to learn from it.

 

I think you should just do your best to be strong and brush it off as best as you can.

[annie24]

hi - it sounds like you did everything right and your supervisor said it was not your fault. so believe them. no matter what your job is, someone out there is going to complain. it's just the nature of the beast. i'd just keep trying to provide good service. some people are just jerks. i don't know about that customer, but maybe they have some reasons why they are upset that have nothing at all to do with you (divorce, problems at work, problems with neighbors, etc...) and they decided to take it out on you. don't worry about it!

[Gracelove]

Hey There!

 

I don't think it will hurts your chances of receiving a promotion. I understand that it's frustrating because you worked so very hard to satisfy the customers needs. You probably fear this will be a permanent stain on your record. However, in the scheme of things it's not that bad. In 10 years from now, you probably won't even remember this complaint. Sometimes you have to look at things this way. It's really important and wonderful that your superiors are aware of what a hard worker you are, you should be proud.

 

The anxiety will fade. Just remember you did the best that you could.

[hellohello1]

Thank you everyone, I feel a bit better. I think it bothered me so much because I feel I helped this customer greatly (I went out of my way to help him) and he complains and I guess I'm taking it personally.

 

If all of you, plus a few of my coworkers and my manager is telling me to not worry about it I guess I probably shouldn't. Thanks everyone.

[blueidealist24]

If the supervisor's saying it isn't your fault, then stop worrying about it. Since the supervisor knows you didn't do anything wrong, I don't think this will affect your chances of getting promoted. The odd customer can just be a jerk. It's not like you got a complaint every month since you started.

[Snny]

There are over 7 billion people on this planet and you're going to let one person ruin your day?

 

Don't.

[Jd1983]

I wouldn't worry about it. I work in hospitality, and sometimes no matter how much you try - it's just not enough.

 

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody".

[EricaNicole]

Just like everyone else has said, you have nothing to worry about.

 

I understand from personal experience how much even unjustified customer complaints can hurt. It's true that some people just want to complain. So many people take "the customer is always right" to such a ridiculous extent that they treat employees as if they're servants that do not deserve respect. They fail to realize that employees are just regular people trying to do a good job. It sounds like you have a very understanding supervisor, which makes you lucky. I know it still hurts, though. Trust me. I once worked at an ice cream shop and had several customers that hurt my feelings, some of which even made me go into the back room and cry. Unfortunately, you can't tell them how you feel or defend yourself like you'd like to. That's one of the downsides of working with people. You just have to remind yourself that you did everything you could for this person.

[starmedia]

I was in the same situation once, just let it go in the customer service field you can't make everybody happy. Plus, your supervisor knows you tried to help the customer as much as possible.