What job is the hardest when it comes to giving customer service?

Question

Please don't include call centre employees - I am more interested in jobs that have to deal with the public face to face such as (but not limited to) cab drivers, coffee shop and fast food workers, hotel employees, etc.

which job takes the most abuse from their customers?

Answer 1

i work at a grocery store as a cashier and not one day goes by that i'm not confronted by a mad customer.  they don't even stop to think that i only work in the front and therefore have NOTHING to do with what goes on in the back of the store, yet they insist on complaining to me and then get mad when i tell them i cant fix their little problem.  and a lot of people just show up angry in most of the places that you listed so even if you did nothing wrong to them they might just pick you as the perfect person to take their anger out on.  

Answer 2

Typically, the challenges are confrontational customers that have intent from beginning.  They want something and you (we) are in the way of their objective (which by the way is always money, it's not moral or ethic, it is all about the payola).  The second more difficult issue is being on a "Dialer" and being "Micromanaged", but still being pushed to keep the calls under a minute.

If you get yourself into a sweat-shop, WALK OUT!  It's not worth 90 days of misery...

Answer 3

Without a doubt, because fast food and buffets have completely different expectations, it must be any full service restaurant. Anything less than perfection is considered grossly insufficient with the waitress taking the brunt of the blame.

To many patrons the only options are 15% or nothing at all, a standard very few of those of us in other service areas would be willing to accept. Finding agreement and support from a supervisor is already difficult enough without adding the "tip" factor into the mix. We seldom correlate the automatic thank you we receive for a job well done to the same hollow thank you given without a tip.

As if keeping a good attitude after the "fine" isn't difficult enough, their feet hurt too.