I broke my rule. I am putting a negative review. But before I did it, I gave the manager and the…read moreowner a chance to be "nice" and they did hang up on me.
One of our Family businesses is a landscaping company. We buy from vendors such as Northwest Nurseries, and we are indeed customers of Northwest Nursery. But, as of today, after being treated like dirt by the Owner Laura and manager Sarah (a diabolic duo) I am taking our business to somewhere nice. (that practice finesse)
Question: What do you have to do for a contractor to hang up the phone on a vendor?
Answer: Treat her daughter like a customer from the "soup Nazi" from Seinfeld, "no plants for you..you, you go and get them, I will not help you"
Maybe it did not happen quite like that, but it felt like that.
Yes, the owner and father did hang up on the manager first, after being pressured, and he did break, maybe for being overprotective of her daughter.
Sarah (the manager) likes to laugh, Laura (the owner) likes to laugh too, and that is great, but can you be nice at the same time? And do not laugh when people are trying to communicate and present a complaint?
Not because you are the owner or manager gives you the right to express that basically you are completely right, and that you are just going to excuse yourself all the way to the bank, all day long, without listening to what the customer has to say?
Why have you become comfortably numb?
In these unpredictable times, it would have been nice to do something like this:
-Northwest Nursery: "oh, hi. How can I help you?"
*The Contractor's Daughter: "Yes My Dad gave me a list of a certain plant, they told him that I was coming to pick it up"
BUT NO!!
-Northwest Nursery: "Oh, you cannot come in, Your Dad has to be here!"
This is a Family Business. Why not help her(she is part owner, and she was welcomed by a nice lady over the phone to come into the nursery and that they will help her")
Now, when dad (OWNER) calls complaining because they are not helping her daughter, and they are not being nice to her. The manager laughs at him. Really!
So Dad hangs up, frustrated and upset.
Now, We (the contractor management WITH THE owners) call back to talk to the manager at the nursery to make sense of all this and to ask to please be nice and do not laugh.
Guess what..., the manager (Sarah) started to excuse herself and say "oh my God!" like saying ...you again! ...and again starting to laugh...really? Again?.
We finished the phone call and mentioned that we will be calling back to talk to the owner.
We did call back and the manager Sarah answered the phone, after talking to her for a bit and again, not going anywhere, we asked to talk to the"the nice lady" that invited the owner's Daughter over the phone to come and shop.
The manager did not want to do that, so we asked to speak with the owner (Laura) for good to try to make sense of all this.
We could not believe it, Laura, the owner sounds and acts just like the manager, Sarah, yes indeed it is a different person, but, the same narrative. She finds all kinds of excuses and also starts laughing. Protecting "her" her ego, the "I". When we asked her to be nice, she laughs again and hangs up!. "The Owner", yes the owner...
Please "Owner" care enough to give all the time necessary to the customer to vent, do not laugh, and please do not hang upon them.
It is irrelevant to get into the detail of this event. But two wrongs do not make one right.
If you are an owner of an establishment, I declare you have taken classes in psychology or negotiations.
The owner will argue this review all the way because she will use her business as a shield, putting rules and regulations first. On how she runs her business, "she" without caring what people think.
Owners, no matter what, do not hang up on your customers. Be better prepared.
We can respect rules, just "be" "nice" and by being nice, I mean with finesse
and if you cannot, close your operation.
Please leave the childish ways and learn commerce.