Recently I encountered one of the worst buying experiences (with
a well known American company), in my life! And that’s saying something because
I’m not a spring chicken. LOL!
Growing up this company was the place to go for appliances,
bedding and more. Everyone I knew had a fridge or washer from them. Their
service contracts were the best and everyone loved them, so I didn’t bother to
do my homework on who they are today and I ran into big trouble.
While looking online for a new bed, I came across a great
sale they were having on a name brand mattress set. They didn’t have it in the
store, but you could order online. I did my research on the set and the reviews
were stellar, so I bought it. Had a great delivery date and time. The day
before it was to arrive, I was notified twice of my estimated arrival. Oh, and
I forgot to mention, I paid extra to narrow down my delivery time.
It was to be delivered at my new home two days before I
fully moved in. My scheduled delivery was between 8am to 10am. At 10:20am I
received an automated call, telling me there was a problem with my delivery and
I needed to call to reschedule. What!
And thus began the nightmare…..
Long story short, my bed was never on the truck and had not
been delivered from the warehouse.
I would have to wait another week.
No way was that happening. But the worst part was talking to
people whose first language was not English. This company farms out their
customer service to a Spanish speaking call center. One woman’s accent was so
heavy I could hardly understand her. No one and I mean “No one” tried to help
me! They all read from a script and could not grasp the idea of doing anything
to make this right. And it took talking to 5 different people and two days before I got
them to cancel my order and make sure they gave me back all my money. They told
me it would take 7 – 10 business days before it would be back in my checking
account. I prayed and it was back in 3 days.
You might be wondering, “Why is she sharing this?” Well,
because it made me think about what poor customer care service we as Christians
sometimes present to others.
I’ve been in customer service positions most of my working
life. I started out as a telephone operator, waitressed and was a barmaid in
college. Worked in corporate America as a manager and retail. Over the years, I’ve
been trained to know what good customer service is and what it is not.
Just imagine how we (customer care reps for Christ) sell
Jesus as a bill of goods to the lost and hurting, and once they join our church
or become Christians, we aren’t really there for them. We expect them to become
spiritual giants overnight, forgetting they are babies and really don’t have a
clue. We spout Bible scriptures at them for everything, (Which they don’t
understand anymore then I could talking to someone speaking with a thick accent.) as a cure all.
And what about our place of employment and community? We have
Bibles on our desk, and praise the Lord this and praise the Lord that in our
conversations. We want people to know—we are Christians! Yet they see us running in late
all the time, talking on our cell phones when we should be working. Or even
worse, we are the leader of the office gossip and take an extra 10 minutes
every day for lunch.
Our neighbors see us toting our Bible on Sundays and Wednesdays,
but we snub them because they are the ones sitting on the porch smoking pot. Or
the lesbian couple who has blended their children together and like to
fuss and cuss all the time.
And we can’t forget our own families. We drag our children
to church on Sunday (maybe even keep them there all day), and Monday through
Saturday, all they see and experience is the same old mean and hateful us. They
see us being disrespectful to our husbands, unkind to others and hear us
gossiping on the phone and being as the kids like to say, “Two-faced” in our
relationships with others.
Just as I will never do business with this company again,
because those who represent them, left a really bad taste in my mouth—it is the
same for people when it comes to Christ. Yup! Our actions or lack of them
leaves a bad taste about Christ, and Christians in general.
I encountered people who were not from America and didn’t
have a clue about American Commerce—all they had was a script to read from.
Well, some of us are in the same boat—we don’t have a clue about Kingdom living
and how it works. And all we do is hand people a script (scriptures), never
really addressing the problem.
When a company sets a goal of good quality service, they
have a plan on how to make things right—especially when they mess up. But in
order to do this, they must have people representing them who understand their
business and what it takes to make people whole.
Same goes for us as representatives of the Kingdom of God.
We have to know and understand the Kingdom and how it works, before we can help
someone else. Good customer service people go through all types of training,
which prepares them to handle the different situations they encounter (because
each is unique in itself) and when they can’t satisfy you, they will go to a
manager for their level of expertise. Same applies to us! When we know the God
of the Bible we can help others and if for some reason we need to go to someone
more mature for help, we shouldn’t hesitate.
What do people say about you behind your back? “Oh there
goes the Christian!” in a sarcastic tone, or “She’s a kind woman.” acknowledging
there is something different about you?
Put your name in the blank and ask yourself, "What type of “representative” are you ______________?"
Until next week...
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