Adventures in Customer Service

You know you're walking some sort of line when you have to reassure yourself that you're technically not lying to people to make a living. Sometimes this is what my job feels like, 'technically not lying' to make customers feel better and stop them from raising a fuss. It is, of course, so much more than that, I am a problem solver, an advocate, a diplomat, and a representative face of my company. But seriously, if customers knew some of the behind the scenes problems in our system I think they would lose confidence in us. Nothing illegal or shady, just nonsensical and sometimes broken, especially for someone looking in and not familiar with why things are the way they are.

I find myself avoiding trying to explain things to customers. Often the less they know the better things will be. I think this is normal for retail, but I'm not sure. Customers don't need to know that we are not trained experts on the products we sell, or that we hate the Apple no-return policy just as much as they do, or that our database can be inaccurate and misleading leading to guesswork on our behalf, or that some points in the lines of internal communication are held together by bubblegum and lucky charms. Then there are the times when I need to smooth over mistakes that other people have made without actually letting on that something went wrong. Like the customer who calls in having been told that their battery would be shipped to them within 3-5 days when anyone whose worked her for more than a month knows that that particular brand of battery usually takes 10 business days. I will explain that the order will take longer than most because it comes out of a warehouse in California (true) but I will not tell them that the rep they placed the order with was either careless or just lied to them or that our website lies about the ETA until after the order is placed.

Normally things run smoothly and the inherent brokenness of our systems doesn't bother me too much. Then I get a few calls where the system failures are very evident and we are not able to resolve an issue because we either missed an important shipping deadline or because we simply ran out of an item and the customer has been waiting for it for two weeks. I diplomacize and explain as best as I can offering sympathy and gift cards when problem solving doesn't work.

I am trying to discern a purpose in this. Why a monotonous job that pays just enough to live if we really watch our budget (but not enough to move ahead or get a mortgage) in a field that I openly despised while working on my BA? Humble pie maybe? It is The Lord's doing, that much seems clear to me. For the time being I need to be here. I would much rather be somewhere else, preferably doing something meaningful in relation to Kingdom work, or at the very least making more than I do with hours that don't mess up family life. Praying I don't miss out on the why while I'm here.