Good customer service is hard to find

   In my line of work, customer service is first and foremost the most important aspect of the job.  Without great customer service, our business just wouldn't thrive.  This is true.  When someone is treated like crap, they tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and so on, and so on.  After being treated in such a way, we tend to stop frequenting the places that treated us like crap, and find friendlier places to go.  But sometimes, you have no choice but to keep going there, due to certain circumstances.  Take, for example, my experience from yesterday.   I have been going to the same hair salon for years.  I love my hairdresser!  She always does a great job, and, even though she is off on Mondays, she comes in just for me, once every six weeks to color and cut my hair.  Impressive, right??!!  So, yesterday I had an appointment at 10 am.  My appointments are always at 10 am, on a Monday.....always.  I get there at 10 am, and the lady ( I use the term loosely) at the front desk asked me who I was there for.  I said my hair dresser's name, and she looked it up and said my appointment wasn't until 12 pm.  Now, my appointment card said 10 am, and that's what I was sticking with.  The lady? continued to argue with me and just had to let me know, at least 3 times, very rudely, that my hairdresser doesn't even work on Mondays.  So I argued back, that she does come in for me on Mondays.  She continued to be extremely rude, and told me that my hairdresser has been on vacation for 3 weeks, like that had anything to do with anything.  In the end, she just shrugged her shoulders, and said to come back at noon, and hopefully my hairdresser would be there.  Thankfully, she was, and she was very apologetic for what had happened.  My appointment had been changed, and the friendly? front desk people had neglected to call me to let me know.  So, in normal circumstances, I would just quit going there, but because I love my hairdresser, I will not.  I did, however, put in a complaint, which apparently was not the first one against this lady.  Hopefully, something will be done, but I'm doubtful.
   My second bad CS experience that I would like to rant about happened late last week.  I had called my eye dr office to order contacts.  The rep (Jamie) I talked to took my order and told me my contacts should be in in 2 - 3 days.  When I get home from work, there is a voice mail on my phone from the lovely rep (Jamie) who had taken my order earlier that day, saying that my prescription was about to run out and that I need to call her.  I called her back the next day, and this is how the conversation went:

Me:  Hi, this is Jennifer H. returning your phone call.
Silence
Me:  You had called me and left a message yesterday.
Jamie:  And did you listen to it? (rude tone in voice)
Me:  Ummmmmm, yes.
Jamie:  So, what are you going to do?  (again, rude tone)
Me:  What do you SUGGEST I do?  (I give the rude tone right back to her)
Jamie:  I SUGGEST you come in for an eye exam since your prescription runs out on the 29th.

   Really?!?!?!  This is how you talk to your customers??  I ended up making the eye appointment because I love my eye doctor, and this company pretty much has a monopoly in this area.  I really don't have much of a choice.

   Like I said, good customer service is hard to find.  If you're in this line of work, remember, your job really depends on you to do your best, and keep the customers coming back for more.