Please advise?

Question

I sometimes lend a helping hand to my dad in his business whenever I have free time. One day whilst helping my dad, something happened which left me somewhat embarassed. After serving a customer, the customer said in low but audible tone ' say thank you. ' You are probably wondering why I did'nt express gratitude to the customer. My dad had already expressed his gratitude to the customer, thus I saw it unnecessary to thank the customer. I can't seem to be putting this incident behind me. I feel embarassed whenever I reflect on this incident. Please advise. Don't hesitate to be as honest as possible.

Answer 1

Hi Alberto, It isn’t easy when you can’t get something out of your mind and your mind is probably blowing the whole incident out of proportion. It is difficult to advise with just a little snapshot of the situation. For instance you may have said ‘thankyou’ to a dozen customers that day and this incident would therefore stand out as you having been misunderstood and unfairly criticised. I don’t feel the ‘thank you’ is the main issue here. Because you are so concerned about the incident you clearly would not have consciously been impolite. This customer has made you feel embarrassed and intimidated. S/he probably thought they were doing you a favour by telling you how to behave. They’ve probably walked away and not thought another thing about it. Have you spoken to your dad about how you feel? Maybe he will reassure you. Or if you worry that he heard the customer and thinks the same way, you can explain your side to your dad. Next time you help out, smile, say good morning to people and if someone makes a belittling remark about you in public, calmly look at him and say, “I’m sorry. Have I offended you in some way? I didn’t mean to!” Mainly I think that if you know you always say ‘thank you’ when it’s due, this is just a one-off situation and the best thing you can do is put it out of your mind. - Polly

Answer 2

There's nothing wrong with you saying thank you to a customer, even if your dad already said it. You want to be as polite as possible in a professional environment. It doesn't sound like it would be a big deal for you not to say it if your dad had just said it, but it never hurts to say thank you even if you're repeating it.

That said... SO weird that a customer would say that to you! It doesn't seem like any of their business to instruct you on doing your job. Personally I am more embarrassed for that rude customer than I am for you.

Put it out of your mind. That one weird customer shouldn't have the ability to humiliate you. Learn from it (say thank you in the future), and leave it behind you. Really really. I don't think you should lose sleep over this one.

Answer 3

Oh such a world we live in where we have to behave just so so or we may offend someone if we don't pamper them. In the old days the customer was always right. In the new world we tend to bring so of the old fashion values like the customer is always right. But now we must do everything so not to offend. If it were I, I would try searching for a way to say thank you in maybe a different language. sort of a way to put your own spin on things.

Answer 4

I work with plenty of customer, too. It never hurts to say thank you even though you might not feel the need to do it. It's just a common courtesy to me. In your case, I would say to customer: "No. no. Thank YOU!". Just to make him/her to feel a little better and maybe get a chuckle out of it.


XR

Answer 5

I cannot understand why it would be wrong for both of you to say thank you to the customer? Are you both not benefiting from the customer's business?

~

Answer 6

Just say it... It means a lot to other people when it comes out of your mouth along with others.

Answer 7

dude, let it go.