Why Customer Service is Easier Online

The difference between online customers and in-person customers.

Customer service: My worst nightmare.

I worked at a crappy movie theater with inappropriate coworkers, stingy managers, and worst of all, rude customers.

My only job as an usher was to clean, check theaters, and tear tickets. Tearing tickets sounds like the easiest job out of the three right? If only you knew how many times I’ve been yelled at during my run-ins with customers.

I didn’t have a stick up my ass or anything. I’m just shy.

Ever since I quit that job and started writing as a career, my entire view of customer service has shifted.

It’s changed from customers are dicks to customers are misunderstood.

Let me explain.

Customers put all of their baggage on a stranger in person.

I’ve had some wild customers at that job.

I’ve had a veteran snap at me for no reason because I told him to wait for the theater to get clean. I’ve had two girls curse me out for not letting them in an R-rated movie. I’ve had people try and crack jokes on me when they weren’t funny and I just wanted to go home.

If you compare all of those scenarios, they all have one thing in common — they all crave attention. Why else would someone try and cause a scene for no reason?

I’m a stranger; I’m neutral.

Sure, people are mean to strangers online too. I’ve had trolls, but the best thing about working online is that you know the trolls will always be there hiding in the confines of a dusty attic.

It just seems like customers get a bigger boner when they mess with someone in person. They like to see the face of who they’re pestering and they like to see them bite their tongue and clench their teeth to avoid a fight to make themselves feel better.

Trolls won’t get to see your face when you react to their negative comments. All they can do is hope and pray you’ll respond and see their 15 follower count on social media.

Your fans are your customers.

This is one of the best things about working online for me.

I don’t have to cold-pitch some random product and pray it gets bought. All I have to do is write, offer free content, engage with people who like my work, and let the product sell itself.

You can say engaging with your followers is customer service, but honestly, I don’t look at it that way. It’s more like talking to your friends online.

And unlike in-person customer service, you genuinely care about the customer. The people who leave comments on your content and send personal emails about their hardships in life and how you’ve somehow helped them cope with those hardships gives you an astronomical incentive to give them your best services.

I always had to pretend I cared about the customer whenever I tore their ticket and they wanted to shoot the breeze with me in the hallway. I didn’t mind their random conversations, but as I said before, I just wanted to go home.

It’s much easier to provide good customer service to your friends rather than strangers.

Final Thoughts

My past experience of customers scarred me from ever performing customer service again. But I failed to realize that I’m still doing customer service one way or another.

I just like the online way better.

Now I know why all of those people went off on me for no reason. They felt misunderstood. Heck, if I had boiled up anger — nevermind, I still wouldn’t do that but I can see where they’re coming from.

If you’re misunderstood, no matter what bad situation you’re in, your first instinct is to take it out on a stranger.

Unlike customers, people who love your content just send you an email full of love and understanding. They relate to your misunderstood experiences.

Hell, we’re all misunderstood.

But the internet gives us a damn good way of wearing our hearts on our sleeve. If I had to choose between a “Thank you for sharing this, I’ve had a similar experience too” over a curse-out, you know what I’ll choose.