Commands & Demands Are Guaranteed to Upset Customers

I like writing my customer service tales when theyre hot, current, and theyre uppermost in mind.

This is one of those stories.

Yesterday, I was returning from an international trip, starting the second leg of the way home.

Already, I had been in the air about 10 hours, and it took another hour to clear customs and to re-check my bags. This followed conducting a new seminar, in two languages before an exacting audience and I was exhausted.

Still, I had another three hours to go, from Houston to Los Angeles.

I was flying First Class.

The flight crew was incredibly self-important, seeming to party on the eve of Thanksgiving while sending the message that the rest of us were rudely interrupting them.

I tried to hand my suit jacket to the flight attendant to be closeted and she barked, Just a minute!

There was no please attached to that line; just a grumpy, irritated, impatient tone.

Whats interesting about this verbal abuse is it immediately reversed any positive feelings the flight attendant had engendered to that point.

I became reluctant to ask for anything else, even a piddling additional cinnamon roll.

The offending message she used, Just a minute! is called a MAND as in command or demand. Any English teacher will say this phrase has an implied You will wait or You must wait that precedes it.

So, what the flight attendant was saying is You must wait just a minute!

Thats harsh and it makes me and most customers feel defensive because it sounds controlling, superior, and unduly authoritarian.

It makes you wonder, Who is paying whom, here? If I told you just how much I invested for my itinerary youd appreciate why so many airlines have suddenly become profitable.

But that wont last long as folks like me shop for the cheapest seats they can find, because were learning that First Class, ISNT!

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,000 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard" in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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