Here is my list of the places with the worst customer service (at least in my opinion):
1. Planet Fitness-I pay $10 a month for my gym membership at Planet Fitness and let me tell you--I am getting ripped off! I belonged to a small, local gym for years. It was a nice gym. It was the perfect size with basic exercise equipment, never too busy and they offered great fitness classes--but right around the time my nice little local gym raised their membership rates I saw a commercial for Planet Fitness advertising that you could sign up for $10 a month. I had been paying $20 a month at my old gym and it was about to go up to $29.95 so $10 sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me. I went in to get some information and check out the gym and right away I noticed a problem with the customer service. I stood at the desk waiting for someone to help me for what felt like forever (it was actually probably closer to a minute or two but when your standing there waiting for someone it feels like a lot longer then it actually is and for god sake why am I standing there waiting to hand you my money?) and the guy who ended up helping me was rude. I was in the middle of asking him a question when the phone rang and as I was speaking he cut me off and walked off to answer the phone. Now, in his defense he was the only one behind the counter at the time and I'm sure he wasn't trying to be rude, he was just multitasking--but as a new customer the whole experience just created a bad impression. He told me he was the only one behind the desk so he couldn't leave to give me a tour but I was welcome to walk around. I mostly just checked out the treadmills (because that's pretty much all I use). My old gym offered great fitness classes like spin classes, zumba and yoga and I noticed right away that Planet Fitness didn't offer anything like that. Compared to my other gym where there were windows and nice lighting, Planet Fitness was dimly lit. I checked out the locker rooms--they were dark and the lockers were tall but very, very narrow. So I definitely had some initial hesitations but I ended up signing up anyway. I have been going there ever since and I have to say I don't have a problem with the actual gym equipment because it seems modern and well-maintained. But the trash cans throughout the gym and in the locker room are always overflowing. The locker room and the showers always seem dirty. The staff always seems impatient and grumpy (but I guess I would be too if I had to be there all day). I guess I am (slowly) getting used to Planet Fitness but I like my old gym and the people there a lot better! I tell myself I am only paying $10 a month so I guess you get what you pay for.
2. My grandmother's eye doctor--Recently my grandmother had to have eye surgery and she (obviously) couldn't drive home afterward so I went with her, brought a book and hung out in the lobby until her surgery was over. She went up to the reception desk, said she had an appointment and they gave her all of the necessary paperwork to fill out. I have to say, everyone there was very friendly and helpful when she asked questions about the forms she was filling out. So we're waiting for just a few minutes and a nurse came out and called my grandmother back to the doctor's office. She went with the nurse and I was waiting in the waiting room (it's not just a clever name). While I was there someone (I'm assuming she was a nurse or some sort of assistant because she was in scrubs) came up and started talking to the receptionist. It was a Monday and they were talking about what they had done over the weekend. The receptionist was making small talk and then the nurse/assistant started talking about her weekend. Apparently she has a son but her son wasn't with her that weekend so she went out to a party. I don't remember all the specific details (but she did tell specific details) but the overall point was that she had been partying all weekend, drank way too much and had been hungover. I was just sitting there thinking, "You do know I can hear you, right?" I will just say the nurse/medical assistant coming in hungover after partying all weekend is not generally the sort of image you want to put out there while you have patients being operated on in the office and their family members are waiting for them out in the waiting room. I'm just left there in the waiting room hearing about all of her partying over the weekend and hoping she is not going anywhere near my grandmother! And as I said I don't know what this person does in the office and I'm certainly not implying that she was operating on anyone or that she was in anyway not able to do her job on Monday morning after a weekend of partying. I guess I use this example more as a word of caution to those in customer service in general. So just remember--You can never tell when a customer can hear you when you are talking and sometimes you are talking louder then you think you are. Of course, if you're friendly with your coworkers talk to them about your wild weekend or the fight with your boyfriend--but maybe just wait until your lunch break or on your way out to the car.
No comments:
Post a Comment