I got one-starred by a customer! What do I mean when I say that? It means a customer wrote an online review about where I work, and more specifically, about me, leaving a one-star rating. Want to know why a lot of businesses loathe online reviews? Because of BS like what you’re about to read! Pour yourself a stiff drink on my behalf and enjoy.
Everything Seemed Normal at First
On June 9, 2018, I was working the sales floor at Zadok Jewelers on a Saturday and helped a young man who was looking for an engagement ring. It seemed like a perfectly normal encounter, and he was friendly and polite. The following Monday, as is my custom, I sent him an appointment recap with information, photos and pricing on the rings and diamonds we looked at in store.
He did not respond, so six days later I followed up, and reminded him we were still holding his mother’s ring that he wanted to trade in toward his purchase.
What followed was a fairly standard exchange about pricing for different settings and diamonds. I got him all of the information he requested. He responded a week later and mentioned that since he was going to buy a house, his budget had changed. I answered him on my day off and said I heard him loud and clear, and that I’d send him some alternatives the next day, which I did. Then there was back and forth about payment options, financing information and the like. He stopped responding.
via GIPHY This is the sort of reaction I always aim for!
Things Start Getting Weird
One month and three days later, now in early August, he wrote to me apologizing for his delay in getting back to me. He said that he needed to lower his budget more. This happens a lot. Life happens, customers drop off, budgets change— no big deal! I wrote back said no problem; I work on the customer’s timeline. Then, I asked if he was open to different ring styles from what we’d looked at before, since with the new budget I was more limited with what I could find him.
(If all of these details seem excessive, just keep reading. You’ll understand later).
Two weeks later, he responded asking if I’d had time to look into more options. I asked him a second time if he was open to other styles. He said yes on a Thursday. Four days later, on Monday, I apologized for the delay in getting back to him and sent over photos and pricing for different styles. (Four days, even when two of those days are days off of work for me, is not a quick response time in my mind, hence the apology.)
He responded and said the options looked great, and that he was ready to spend $X. The only problem was that $X was a much lower budget than we’d last discussed, a four digit difference in fact. I felt a little perplexed by him presenting me with a new budget as if it hadn’t changed. Now, it would be difficult to find him any ring at all.
I Thought We Were Done?
At this point, I’d spent almost three months emailing back and forth with someone who never got past the initial investigation phase of ring buying. He hadn’t returned to the store once since his first visit and his communication had been erratic. I gently explained that I wasn’t seeing any diamonds in the carat range he wanted that would keep him in budget, but that I hadn’t factored in the trade-in item yet. In hindsight, that was a mistake. I was tiptoeing around the issue, and with the ambiguous comment about the trade-in item I wasn’t direct enough in saying that I could not get him what he wanted at his budget, period. Irony alert: I specifically remember not wanting to say anything that could be interpreted as the slightest bit blunt or snobby because I feared a bad online review. His reply: “Ok, thank you.”
I thought that it was over, that “Ok, thank you” meant “Ok, thanks anyway.” That was the end of our communication. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out, and that’s okay. Except that it wasn’t. He would one-star me, and I had no idea.
Can I Live? Spoiler Alert: No
Six days later, I was on a late-night flight to Bogotá, Colombia, excited to travel around Colombia visiting my husband’s family and friends for two weeks. I had contacted all of the customers with whom I was actively working to let them know that I would be gone. I left detailed instructions with my co-worker, who would help them in my absence. My out-of-office email message had his information as well, along with the statement that I would answer all emails in the order in which they were received upon my return. If anyone needed help before then, all was taken care of.
via GIPHY An accurate depiction of our excitement level when leaving for Colombia.
I didn’t contact the customer with whom I’d emailed back and forth with for so long before leaving. If I made any other mistakes, I guess this was mistake #2. But we hadn’t actually accomplished anything together, and if he had written to me, we’d have to start from scratch yet again. I honestly thought he was done with me and the store.
Spoiler alert: he wasn’t. The shit was about to hit the fan, and I was leaving on a jet plane, none the wiser.
To be continued…