In most jobs, customers are the number one priority, and they are to be given respect and make their time enjoyable.

As a person who has been on the customer side and the employee providing customer service, I can say respect is a two way street, but it is not required of the customer.

I understand that people have bad days but taking out your anger on an employee who is just doing their job, is not respectful in anyway, so why should any employee have to be respectful to someone who is intentionally hurting their feelings?

If a customer insults me, as a person not the company I am working for, I should be able to defend myself, but I would be fired if I snapped at a customer. Yet it is socially acceptable for the customer to say what they want and not apologize for it.

There are circumstances where an employee may not care about the customer’s needs or put forth effort to make sure a customer is happy, so I would understand if a customer told the employee how terrible they are doing at their job.

For me, no matter the kind of day I am having, I always try to smile at every customer and ask, “Can I help you find something?” or “How are you doing today?” Because I know how I would want to be treated when I go into stores such as grocery stores or shopping malls. I want the person waiting on me to care and make sure they are doing their job.

No one is perfect, in my opinion, so people do make mistakes, but it is how someone reacts that could make someone cry from embarrassment or grateful from having an understanding customer.

Obviously a company wants to make money, and their customers have to be happy to make profit, but I am tired of trying to fulfill a customer’s needs and in return, they insult me, personally, or make a sassy comment that was definitely not appreciative. When I spend three times as longer with a customer than a usual situation, and I am overly polite, it is obviously not me who is the problem.

If they think they can do a better job, go ahead, I would love to see you try.

People are people and it should not matter where you are located, if someone treats you with respect, you return with the same commentary, but if someone intentionally makes you feel bad about something that is out of your hands, I say make it known to them they have the option of doing it themselves. Obviously they think it is hard, since they are asking someone else to do it, so if you want something done correctly, you should probably be as courteous as possible to someone who is responsible for creating a product you need.