December 15, 2008
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from your customer service pal: the magic words
I know I should be unbiased and help everyone equally, but I am so much more likely to answer your email the very second I get it if you say things like “please” and “thank you”. Reading things like “I want this done now!!!!!” is no motivation for me to do anything to help you out.
For real.
Also, please please please always put your username in your email and if you are reporting something, make sure you add the URL to that page.
Love,
Friendly Neighborhood Customer Service Rep
Comments (46)
I totally understand that. It can be pretty frustrating when people are not only demanding, but rude, too.
Whenever I send people your way, I always say “be extremely polite”.
FOR YOU ARE THE HOLDER OF MIGHTY XANGA POWEERRRSSS
@Drakonskyr - YAAAAAAAAAAAA
You’ve always been helpful to me. It isn’t your fault that for the first five or six years that I was on here (and most others who have been on here more than a year or two) were extremely frustrating and all sources of “help” led to the same dead-end circle of broken links and misinformation, eventually ending in email forms that didn’t seem to go anywhere. However, please consider that is the reason some folks are less then polite. They’ve been banging their head against the wall trying to get help for quite a while when they finally discover you.
You should send the back an email saying “Excuse me… I don’t live in the land of the rude.” Then ignore them until they say please. That’s what I do with my monsters. Well, I SAY it… I don’t take the time to email them, but you get the point.
Amen and amen.
I’m sure the same people who get pissy at the drop of a pin appreciate the customers who come into their work and treat them respectfully.
Anyhow, I think you’re doing a fantastic job. =)
You’ve always been very helpful to me. And for that, I give you thanks.
Eeep. I hate it when people demand things and don’t even bother to say “please” or “thank you.” Just because you’re supposed to be helping them doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be polite about it. (It also bugs me when people are rude to their servers at restaurants, but that’s not the point.)
Anyone who is rude to you, our Esteemed Xanga Goddess, needs to be granny-punched. Send ‘em to me. No one will ever hear from them again.
I think people forget those words sometimes. You’ve always gotten back to me super fast with any of the problems I’ve had. Thanks for helping us when we’re in need! (Working in customer service, I find it hard to go the extra mile to those who start off in an demanding tone.)
BUT THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS FREAKIN RIGHT!!!! >:O I WILL MAKE DEMANDS AND THEY SHALL BE FULFILLED!!!!!!!!!!
O man, I can feel ya there. Being a server in a restaurant is also quite humbling. I think everyone needs to work a service job in their life so they can experience what is it like to hear demands and rudeness all day long.
When they are rude ,might I suggest sending them this link
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_March_25/ai_n24945925
nuff said
It’s even worse when it comes from a computer, isn’t it?
yes’m!
But, Natalia, you know we love you. Even if you take three hour lunch breaks.
I work in the email department at work, and I respond and do MUCH more for customer’s who are simply wondering why or asking or requesting something than…”FIX THIS NOW!!!!” or, “You WILL give me my late fee back.” Yeah…
Here’s an extra “please” and an extra “thank you” just in case some twat comes along and doesn’t throw it in the next email to you.
Aww you were very nice to me that one time I messaged you
I know the magic words! Magica wordsica! …wait, were they something else?
+1! Well put
Haha, people just think it’s a machine dealing with their problems and they have every right to be rude. SO NOT.
@grandmakitty - snap. The all-powerful granny punch FTW.
Common courtesy is kind of uncommon these days.
I hope I always say please and thank you.
Natalia, you are the bomb diggity…for real. I can’t tell you how much you’ve helped me these past couple of years (yes, it’s been about that long)…
blessings.
lol your post just reminded me…i totally forgot to call this member back yesterday because she was being so damn “demanding”. OOOOOOPS!
@Drakonskyr - that made me laugh and @niez_cho - I completely agree.
Ahhh Natalia, smart, beautiful, polite. I have a saying that pertains to this in a loose way. If you want to end a friendship, move in with them. In that same sense, if you want to observe people at their lowest, creepiest and most demanding, work for them.
Oh, if you end a communication with “regards” it is actually the highest form of insult, especially “highest regards.”
I think “highest regards” is roughly translated to “choke on poo” in corporatespeak.
I think everyone on the Xanga team, and especially you, do a great job. Rude people should get exactly the attention they deserve. None.
I’ll have to remember this.
You’ve always done a wonderful job when helping me.
Natalia, you’re the best. There’s never been anything that you or the rest of the Xanga staff havent been able to help me with. Sorry that people are dicks sometimes. Anyone who isnt a paying Xanga member shouldnt expect you guys to do them any favors. To me, blogging on Xanga is a privilege, not a right.
i know, i hate rude ppl, especially when they’re asking for u to do sth for them.
you gave me my universal inbox back. And for that I am eternally grateful!!
YES! Thank you! Mean ppl make me soooo….
As a fellow neighborhood customer service rep please, folks don’t be mean. It really ruins our moods and then we take it out on the rest of the Xanga team. 
Well said Natalia.
I’m always polite. Being a bitch doesn’t get you far.
Please and thank you go a long way when you’re trying to get people to do things for you. I’m surprised more people don’t know this.
I worked in the glorious world of telemarketing for all of one month before I quit, and let me tell you, if you were being rude and demanding, we definitely did NOT take you off our list. Illegal? Probably. Extremely satisfying? Heck yes!
Word. <3 you Natalia. Also I hope my post tomorrow doesn’t piss anyone off.
I know I’ve messaged you a few times when I’ve had problems posting. I hope I’ve been polite enough, even though I was just a little frustrated at the time.
Oh my soul that is so true. I just wish people would get that! Whiners, complainers, paranoid people, those that accuse the computer or the system – those are the people that no one wants to help, which of course only fuels their paranoia.
I do inside tech support (i.e., our employees are my “customers”). The ones that are nice get way better support than those that are demanding and whiny. Period.
Figure it out, folks.
natalia, could i please have xanga prem. services, for life, for free?
-thank you very much.
@owbert - see, that’s the way you do it