Today’s post unlike most of my posts was not witnessed by me, I didn’t actually hear the conversation either. As a matter of fact I was about 3000 miles away when it happened. I did however get this story told to me by the rep it happened to. Although you are getting the information second hand, I heard it right from the horses, well reps, mouth.
I received a call from a rep today who works in the Pacific Northwest. He called and was laughing so hard I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. I just sat in my car with my cell phone to my ear and watched the minutes float by while he laughed. Finally after what seemed like an hour or more, but I am sure it was only 2 to 3 minutes (which is a long time to laugh, try it if you don’t believe me) the rep finally caught his breath and told me what he found so funny.
The rep told me that he had just left one of his larger accounts and that he was thrown out and told (from the reps own words he was told in a very vulgar way with no room for misunderstandings) to never come back and if the rep could arrange it to stop using oxygen. (My words, the rep told me the customer told him to drop dead)
As you can imagine I was a little confused, on one hand the rep is laughing so hard I couldn’t understand him, on the other hand he just told me he lost a large customer. I think we all need to admit these two things don’t usually go together.
I didn’t say anything, I didn’t know what to say. The rep asked me if I heard him. I told him yes, but I didn’t see anything that was funny yet. He asked me to try and guess why the customer threw him out. I played along and went through all the usual reasons a customer throws a rep out and requests a death sentence for the rep. I started with asking if the rep sold him a product that ruined something. He said no. I asked if the billing was wrong, he said no. I asked if he shipped the product without the customers permission (I knew this wasn’t it, I know this rep) the rep said no. After about another guess or two I told him I gave up and asked why. The reps said FOOD! Once again I was stumped. I said, there has got to be more to the story, tell me what happened.
This was a mistake, the rep once again burst into uncontrollable laughter and there I was watching cell minutes flash by as he laughed. He then said, have you ever taken a customer out to lunch and had them get so mad about the food that they wanted you to die? I had to admit, this was a new one on me.
Here is the story, the rep took this customer out to lunch at a local restaurant. The customer told him that he had never eaten there before and was happy the rep chose this place. They sat at their table and waited for the waiter. The rep said that it took a long time for the waiter to get to them but the conversation he was having with the customer was going really well. The waiter finally came and took their drink orders. The rep tells me that NO ALCOHOL was ordered. Once again it took a long time for the waiter to bring the drinks to the table, but the rep told me the conversation he was having with the customer was still going good.
Finally the waiter came with the drinks and took the food order. According to the rep it took at least 30 minutes for the food to come out. The rep didn’t tell me, but I am guessing that the two of them have now been at this restaurant for about an hour and they just got their food. They ate their lunch and anticipating a long wait for the check the rep asked the waiter before they were done eating. As the rep suspected it took almost 15 minutes to get the check and another 10 to pay. All total they were out for lunch for almost 2 hours. The rep says that they were still talking and that it wasn’t an issue.
The two of them walked into the customer’s office and one of the employees was waiting for the customer in his office. It seems that in the two hours they were gone 6 people walked off the job and forced the line to shut down. The rep knew this was trouble and asked if there was anything he could do. A simple question that many of us would have asked trying to show we care and our willingness to help.
Here is where things went sideways! According to the rep the customer turned around and looked at him and said, haven’t you done enough taking me to that %#%*!@* restaurant! The rep was stunned. Before he could say anything the customer started blaming him for keeping him away for so long that this had a chance to happen. It was someplace in this moment of time the customer asked the rep to stop using oxygen.
The rep said that he just was amazed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The customer brow beat him for another minute or two before the rep just walked out.
I asked the rep if he was OK. He said that he thought it was the funniest thing that ever happened to him. The entire meal was bad, service, price, and food, then to top it off he was told to drop dead and never come back by the customer.
He said it was the craziest thing he has ever seen and had to tell me about it. He asked if I had ever heard anything like this happening before, I told him that I had not. This seemed to thrill him even more, he said that he had stumped the master. I guess he did.
My next question to the rep was did you learn anything from what had happened. Now it was my turn to laugh. He said heck yeah he learned something. He said he learned never to try a new restaurant out with a customer.
I am still laughing from that reply!
Lorin
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