If there is one industry I never want to work in it's customer service. You're basically the bitch boy of customers and the company you represent. No matter how much shit you get you're supposed to take it. If you dare complain then you're shitted on even worse. I admire the people who have the fortitude to deal with that shit day in and out. Because I sure as hell don't.
Trust me, it can be tough. I am so glad I am no longer, for the most part, dealing with the end customer. I had two serious situations when working in banking.
One person wasn't even a customer and got upset that we could not open a bank account because he did not have the required ID. He was like 16 and started making a scene and asking me to "step out side". I am not an aggressive person, nor do I get riled by words, so just stared at him until my boss separated us. He was then seen later that day harassing and old lady on the bus. That day I remember not being in a great mood and would have loved to smack him around the face but it's just no worth it.
I had another customer where we had to freeze his business bank account because both of the owners called in to accuse each other of stealing money and wanted to prevent each other taking money from the account. It ended up being a very protracted situation which turned very aggressive with one of them threatening staff on a daily basis and even chained himself to the store. I remember having to go to his house late in the evening to deliver a cheque (as agreed) only for him to be out at the time, wasting hours of my out of work time.
However, when you do get more experienced and senior, you learn how to not take shit from people a bit better. If I was to go back in time, I would have taken the same approach with the dumb kid by ignoring him but with the second guy, I would not have stood for his shit for a second and closed the account straight away. The problem comes when you have a boss who won't let you exercise your authority and bends over for everyone.
An example and another banking story. My boss and another person senior to me went to visit a local car wash that was turning over big money and arranged to get them to open bank accounts with us. I was an account opener at the time and they booked them in to see me. There was an something quite serious that came up personally which meant I had to rearrange the account opening for another day (keep in mind this was something other people could do by my boss (boss's boss in fact) wanted them to see me as I was the "expert"). When it came to our meeting, they simply came across really dodgy. They were all from a "high risk" country, turnover seemed way too much for a car wash and they also wanted accounts typically reserved for solicitors for some insurance side business they were doing.
All seemed dodgy so I delayed the account opening. If it wasn't a referral from my boss's boss (director) I would have declined it there and then, but thought I would at least let the director know the issues before I declined it as he was keen to get this account opened. I mentioned it in an email, never heard back, so went ahead and declined the account opening. They went absolutely ape shit, called the director and complained, threatened to go to the media and made a huge stink out of it. Typical pussy, my director straight away caved, gave me a talking to and told me to open the account (something I would now refuse to do even if it was a direct
order). I got the accounts opened but refused to open the account for the insurance nonsense and just the car wash.
A few months later, there is tonnes of cash coming into the account, £10k-£15k a week, all from a car wash that was down the road and never looked that busy. I then took a look at the account and notice there were a number of these special accounts opened which were depositing cheques from other people. I also then noticed there were a bunch of similar car wash and restaurant accounts from people of the same nationality. Raised this with compliance straight away and shit storm ensued. Accounts were closed, people suspended, police involved and everyone in the store had to do an interview with a former policeman who was trying to untangle what happened.
There was a documentary on Channel 4 titled The Jihadi Next Door. There is a restaurant one of the guys goes into, goes upstairs and starts watching videos of people being beheaded and talking about his love for ISIS. That restaurant is one of the businesses we opened an account for.
