Rude Employee - Lacks Empowerment

If this employee had come to your job and asked you to defy your boss
for his benefit, would you have done it? Most fast food employees
make barely over minimum wage and can't even use the bathroom without
checking with their manager, trust me it was out of his hands. And
don't hold ALL Arby's restaurants responsible for this. I'll never
understand why people will boycott a nationwide chain they obviously
like because of one bad experience with one employee at one location
one time.

Ive noticed there are some comments on how the employee addressed the
customer when they were storming out mad. I just have to ask, how
would you exactly have handled it any better besides smiling and
saying have a nice day? What would you expect the employee to say
instead? Nothing? That would piss off the customer. What would be the
other plan? There is nothing else they can say. The employee handled
it professionally and well. This wasn't a case of the employee seeking
revenge. He simply was following store policy and handled the whole
situation correctly, he needs to get on with helping other customers
who want to eat. Customers may take the smiling as sarcasm, and they
will always be offended if they know they were the ones wrong in the
situation. When customers are upset about something, they get riled up
with anything the employee says to them, even if they are courteous.
They take anything the employee say and throw it in their face. It's
frustrating to the employee when they tell the customer, especially in
the most polite and professional manner, that they are not empowered
to do things, but the customer seems to not understand and storms off.
This situation is a perfect example of that. As stated before, if the
employee says nothing then wouldn't that piss off the customer still?

The employee was empowered, he was empowered to say no when you didn't
have the actual coupon. In most cases, they need the coupon to
balance out the till at the end of the shift. No does not equal rude,
it simply means no.

At this time, they are not set up to take virtual coupons. While
writing to a company and making a suggestion that it would be a good
idea if they did is fine, writing off a business because they can't is
a little over the top.

PRINTED coupon required, not "eh, just show me your iPhone"

I don't think the employee lacks empowerment, seems he was empowered
to tell you "no".

If I lived locally, I'd go shake the kid's hand.

Have a very nice day!

So you are calling this employee "rude" for telling you "no"?

and for wishing you a "nice day" when you left?



There is nothing wrong with telling someone no.

Absolutely.

We can all go to this place and on any given day, even the best of the
best might slip.

I imagine the poster probably did not just take the "no" and say
"okay, just thought I'd ask" based on the post. I don't think there
is anything wrong with asking. The worst he could say was, no. The
problem, of course, lay in what transpired after.

I walked out of Borders the other day because they were supposed to
have two books on hold for me but only had one. The employee, who I
imagine deals with this situation many times a day, decided to put me
in my place when I expressed disappointment (honestly, I wasn't upset,
angry, frustrated - I said, oh, really. what happened? in a nice
voice).

I assume that some people get really upset and he seemed determined to
take the upper hand immediately and tell me how they had emailed me
that it wasn't available since, "it is an Easter book. And it isn't
Easter" even though online it said that it was available.

I hadn't seen the email when I had last checked about an hour before
with the updated info. But instead of just explaining the situation
to me, he took out his frustration on me, I am assuming, about having
to deal with these situations over and over again. I purchased
nothing. He also smirked at me and I got the sense that he felt great
that he had put me in my place. What that place was, I have no idea.
It happens and sometimes it is the companies' policies that put
employees in awkward places over and over again until employees just
vent on a customer. Empathy and sincerity go a long way - not always
but often.

I have worked in the service industry pretty much my whole life.

Working in restaurants front of the house and back of the house I have
dealt with EVERYONE.

I have lost my cool a few times, but only when the customer wont stop
and begins to treat me or my employees like dirt. Does that make it
right? No, but we are all human.

I work 2 jobs now, both service related. One as a manager in a
kitchen, the other as a computer tech.

Just the other day I had to tell a long time customer at the computer
store that I couldnt help her. She insists on free tech support over
the phone, or repairs in house. The problems she has arnt our fault
in the least, but sometimes they are so easy to fix that we just do it
and dont charge. She began to take advantage of this and finally my
boss put an end to it and had a conversation with her. It didnt go
over very well, and that night she was calling me trying to get me to
help her with MS Word. I told her I couldnt help as I was in the
middle of my work, she started screaming at me. I hung up on her, she
called back telling me we were the worst repair shop and she would
tell all her co workers and friends about us.

Now we have probably given this lady 5-10 hours of free in house
repairs, and probably 10-20 hours of over the phone support AT NO
CHARGE. In total she probably spent about $500 on parts and service
from us over the last year.

One simple no and all of a sudden we are the worst service she has
ever seen.

We cant win either way. Dont even get me started on the food service
side of my life.

Once again, "No" doesn't equal bad service. He explained the policy,
which seems very reasonable to me, and you didn't like it. They
probably need the actual coupon when balancing out their cash at the
end of the day.

I have a picture of a pile of money on my phone. Do you think the
bank will let me deposit it into my account?

And let's not even get into the picture of Matt Damon I have!!!


LOL!!!

Wow. The store employee follows a REASONABLE policy and you are going
to hold a grudge forever and ever because of that?

It isn't much good to have it at home, if you need it for the
purchase. You knew you needed it, but you were hoping a technology
paper trail would tip the scale.

I don't agree with you. The store has a policy and the CSR stuck to
it. He did his job, you tried to change his mind, and in the end he
smirked at you. It sounds like you didn't accept "no" for an answer.

I'm not a big fan of "mobile devices". I sold a pair of tires called
"Proxes 4" on Ebay, and when the guy came to pick them up he looked
confused and said he thought he bought four tires. He whipped his
mobile device out, and looked up the auction. I would have been very
impressed with his technology, if he had opened his eyes and actually
read what he was buying.

It was poor planning to go and expect to redeem a coupon you didn't
have in your possession.

They recently had a promo where you could text them and they would
text you back with coupons for a free sandwich, etc. All you had to do
was show them your cell phone and the text. It seems that they do
accept coupons from mobile devices and use technology.

I disagree with you that the cashier should have honored the coupon
which you did not have with you. It is likely store policy that for
this type of promotion, the customer needs the physical coupon. Maybe
the franchisee sends them back in for reimbursement of some sort.
Another possibility is that they need it to track each discount, as
mentioned by another commenter. Showing your iPhone was your idea of
eligibility, but it is apparently not their.

A lack of preparation on your part does not mean that they are
required to honor the promotion. It is your fault that you did not
have the coupon, not theirs.

I do not see how the employee was not empowered. Just because the
employee told you no does not mean that they are rude or not
empowered. At my job, I am empowered to do whatever it takes to
satisfy my customers, but there are some instances where I do have to
say no, such as honoring a promotion without the certificate.

It maybe that he is accountable for the coupon in his register. No
coupon may show him short in his till. Too many shorts and you have no
job. Tough economy not to have a job!I do think his attitude needs
adjustment. He could have explained this to you.

They choose not to take 'virtual' coupons at this time. This may come
across better by the recipient as a suggestion, rather than
complaining to them for something that is not part of their normal
practices.