Day 2
Lessons in communication:
When one gives directions to an incoming guest, the staff must remember that the guest only listens to the dialogue in his own head. He has already created this conversation in his own head and only needs your voice to act as white noise. He may not even let you speak. He may even tell you how to arrive at your hotel. Be prepared to receive at least two more phone calls from this guest when he has inevitably gotten lost. After the third time, the guest usually abandons their own dialogue and listens to the staff. He has been broken. Be prepared for him to come in agitated citing “the person that he spoke to gave him bad directions”. Proceed to check in. Do not engage in explanations. They will not soothe the dialogue in his head. And whatever you do, do not utter the phrase “just go out the way you came in” when giving future directions. This guest has already reimagined the entire landscape of your entire to resemble an ever-changing Labyrinth. Show him on a map or give him an address to punch into his GPS, because they are far more dependable than humans who live in the area.
Hope that this aids your survival.
Good luck. Godspeed.
3 comments:
As someone who gets constantly lost in new settings; I would like to humbly apologize.
As someone who has also been in customer service; I'm sorry to hear that you go through this.
Working a job where customers can easily walk all over you is never easy. Not only because you have to deal with the inane problems of the customer, but because you have to act positive and nice while doing it.
In a perfect world, you should have 1 customer a day that you can flip the bird to. Two on special occasions.
I completely understand. You did a great job at illustrating the frustrating, round about, and impossible task of trying to communicate directions to customers or people in general! Communication, especially when it comes to giving precise instructions can often be infuriating. This is clearly expressed in your writing!
hahahahha! this post was very entertaining. I completely agree. People tend to think out the entire conversation in their head and then don't pay attention to the content when it is being said. It might be interesting to keep a tally for specific themes so that you can let your readers know how often these interactions take place. Keep up the interesting topics :)
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