We’re renowned for our politeness in this country – with the exception of a few people. But I sometimes think it would be really good to say exactly what we think without holding back.
I spoke to a very nice gentleman earlier today, so I was naturally polite. However, if I had said exactly what I wanted it would have been a very different story. The conversation would have gone something like this:
ME: ‘Good morning. You’re through to…How can I help you?’
CUSTOMER: ‘Hello. I’ve just been looking on the internet at your boiler cover. Could you just run through what it covers for me? I’m looking at the one that is £.. a month.’
ME: ‘No problem. It states quite clearly on the internet what it covers, but if you wish me to tell you as well, here goes. It covers…just as it says in front of you.’
CUSTOMER: ‘Does it include a boiler service?’
ME: ‘As it quite clearly states on the internet, yes it does. It’s that big blue bubble that says free boiler service included. The one that’s stuck in the middle of the page. You can’t miss it.’
CUSTOMER: ‘Do you do cover for burst pipes and electrics as well?’
ME: ‘Well, you know the page you are looking at right now? If you glance ever so slightly to the right you will see our package cover with all of that included. That’s right, it’s right next to the boiler cover.’
CUSTOMER: ‘What does this one cover?’
ME: ‘I’ll run through it for you. You can follow the list on the web page as I’m reading it out to you. It covers…’
CUSTOMER: ‘What’s the price of this one?’
ME: ‘You see those big numbers with the pound sign in front of them? That’s the price.’
CUSTOMER: ‘How do I set this up?’
ME: ‘It can only be set up on the net. As it states.’
CUSTOMER: ‘I don’t know how to use the computer.’
ME: ‘Well you found our web page on the computer. You also found the boiler cover that you were interested in. You didn’t have too much problem there did you?’
As I say, the actual conversation on my part was more polite than this. Probably for the best. We do have customers like this very frequently, though. Not just about the internet site, but also about their documents. It’s very clear that they have the information in front of them, but they can’t be bothered to actually read it themselves. It’s easier to call us. Perhaps they’re hoping that we’ll tell them something completely different.
Natural Matrix 