Further to the last post on rubbish service I was amazed by the quanity of comments it attracted along the lines of, 'Ryan remained too cool, he should have told them to F*@K Off or threatened retribution'. I'm with Dr. Drang on how best to respond to poor experiences.
.. I don’t feel angry or outraged, nor am I disheartened by the sad state of the world. I’m just happy I planned for these mistakes and for others that didn’t happen. It’s something I wouldn’t have done when I was younger, and I would have ended this day upset. Now I see my interactions with customer service as a sort of strategy game: can I plan my way around the obstacles the game will put in my way? Today I came out on top. Tomorrow is another round.
I always buy some food for my 2+ hour train journeys before I get on the train - so when they tell me that all catering is closed due to staff shortages, I feel a small sense of victory rather than outrage.
I always make those calls to customer service centres, the ones where you know you'll be on hold for 10 to 25 minutes, from my desk where I can switch on the speaker phone, and work away on my Mac with a little background music, rather than suffer a frustrating wait.
I always tell myself that cool is everything and the only way I could be the loser in any outrageous failure of service situation, would be if I lose my temper.
I don't always succeed but I think the good Dr. is very wise - It's a game of chess, you win by being smarter and thinking ahead, not be being more pigheaded than whomever you are facing off against.
Tomorrow is another round. Indeed.