We called the Cat lady

On Monday Lesley, my bill collector and no BS administrator, called the lady who's cat supposedly we let escape her home due to our hoses in the door way.

Lesley called and when cat lady answered she told her who was calling and then asked about the cat. Lady said cat came home. Lesley then said great! Would you like to pay with a credit card? Cat lady said WHAT?? Lesley asked again. Cat lady gave number and then said, would you like it know where I found the Cat? It was outside. But you really don't care because you just wanted your money. Lesley told her that she it was her responsibility to kennel her animal before we arrive and she was given a 30 minute call ahead. Also thaw our technicians were in a schedule and couldn't wait for her to do so when they arrived. Lesley also told her she had four dogs and when she expects working being done in her home that she puts the animals up beg ire arrival. Cat lady hangs up on her.

Then calls back and ask for me.

I return her call. Cat lady tells me if this is how we treat our clients we have awful customer service. She goes on to tell me the above and how offended she is and how she could go to review sites and post negative reviews. I respond to her and recognizes her emotional response, and reassured her that Lesley meant nothing personal or disrespectful about her response. I also told her we have impeccable customer service and our reviews state such fact. I also told her that we have animals and do care about hers, that's why we treated this situation in the manner we did. Also that we were prepared to go to a local animal shelter and rescue a cat for her. I told her I know it would not have been her cat but I want you to know our company has put you and your pets at the top of our meetings for the last 7 days. I went on and let her know that this was an unfortunate mishap and no one was prepared for it. I explained how the whole situation was an emotion event for everyone, and we ALL handled it the best way possible. I reiterated that if I was more concerned about money that I would have insisted on payment before I left, not request for YOU to call us back when the cat came home and make payment then. (She never called). At this point I pointed her to our vision statement, "Neighbors Serving Neighbors" and told her that is who we are. Her neighbor catering to her floor care needs. I told her that I was born in the town she lived in and that if she were to mention my name to anyone they would speak highly of my family and my character.

At this point I informed her that when unfortunate situation like this happen it sheds light on arrears or business needs sharing. I informed her of the policy changes that this situation has brought about and how going forward we will be better prepared to assist our clients who have animals in their home. I did apologize for her having to be the one to go through a difficult event.

At this point I turned her attention to the good aspects of the service we provided her. I asked her if we treated her with respect and were sensitive to her scheduling needs when scheduling her appointment. I asked if we treated her and her home with care when we greeted her and walked though with her as we assessed the problem she called us about. I reiterated that we were able to remove the terrible large ink stain. I closed with saying that I hope she could she that we recognized that this was an emotional event for everyone and pointed to how I held of on billing because of the emotions in the air. I also asked that I hope she could she that we were working extremely hard to make us serve her and other better. I asked that I hope she was happy with the over all handling of all we provided and that I would hope that she have us back to her home but would hope that she would tell other about our service.

She said she was happy and understood and would refer us to her family and friends.

Sorry about the bad typing it's hard on and iPad one letter at a time. Lol

How the Heck is this Off Subject?
Dude, you were too polite!
When she told Lesley she was gonna write a bad review, you shoulda called her and said you'd write a Review about HER on the Lounge.
We could call it "Angie Joe's List."
Grab some of Andy's lines, pull it all together here.
Teach these bitches some respect.

Joe Bristor wrote:How the Heck is this Off Subject?
Dude, you were too polite!
When she told Lesley she was gonna write a bad review, you shoulda called her and said you'd write a Review about HER on the Lounge.
We could call it "Angie Joe's List."
Grab some of Andy's lines, pull it all together here.
Teach these bitches some respect.

  you and Lesley would rule the world! But as Lesley says I'm a wuss. Lol. Somebody has to play nice. I love the Joe's List! Lesley is laughing at me and says Joe knows you too well. Lol.

Actually, you shoulda called back that same evening of the job and asked about the cat and then a few days later maybe for the money; once the cat was found.
Then if she said you were just after the money you would race to Joe's List and light her up.

Yeah, Joes list would have made a more aggressive business guy out of me. Your right I should have done the call he next day though. We could turn the tables with Joes List!

Joe Bristor wrote:Actually, you shoulda called back that same evening of the job and asked about the cat and then a few days later maybe for the money; once the cat was found.
Then if she said you were just after the money you would race to Joe's List and light her up.

Exactly! Should have kept the call topic seperate between the cat and payment, but like you said, she was the irresponsible person in this equation and not you.

I remember cleaning an empty home last year when the new owners arrived 2-days early and started unloading the U-haul while I was cleaning. I was able to talk them into leaving things in the garage and coming back after I finished cleaning.....except for their Parrot. It was too hot for the bird they said and set his cage in the kitchen, then told me that it was very sensative to chemicals and gets agitated by loud noise.  

I stopped and loaded up the van after the bird sneezed the first time. I didn't want to walk into that trap and get blamed for making the bird sick...even though it was dut to their irresponsible act.

Some pet owners are just like some parents....just not good.

People with pets know how their pets are gonna react to strangers; especially men's voices, loud trucks, and hissing hoses.
F'in A. They know.
It happened to me several times where all I saw was a flash of furr... it was the cat or maybe the dog running for their life as I started to speak.  
Every time, I was caught completely offguard.
Every time, the customer was more sorry than I was.
Still, you gotta be concerned. You gotta turn everything off for few minutes and offer to help them look if they want you to.
Do that and normal people won't hold it against you.
Other than apologizing it happened and offering to help, you are free to proceed... cuz they knew damn well what mighta happened the second that pet heard your voice.
Still, I'd rather have the lil poodle nipping at my ankle every time I turn my back than a cat flying down the stairs and out the door at 30 mph. At least with the poodle, you get to give him a dirty look somewhere during the job.

This lady is trying to control you since you scared off probly the only thing in her life she controlled.
Don't let her get away with it you 'wuss.'
Let's see that check.

Haha. Lesley and I work as a team sometimes. She tough and a wreaking ball when the time calls for it. Then I'm the Peace speaker. Lol here is the check. Lol

Cool.

You were definitely more cool about it then I would have been. I would have pointed out HER responsibility when she started hammering me about her lost cat. It was entirely HER fault for not locking it up. She had been given plenty of warning.

Sure sounds to me as if she had some plan of trying to get a free cleaning out of this from the get go. I don't play games with people well at all.

Freemind1 wrote:You were definitely more cool about it then I would have been. I would have pointed out HER responsibility when she started hammering me about her lost cat. It was entirely HER fault for not locking it up. She had been given plenty of warning.

Sure sounds to me as if she had some plan of trying to get a free cleaning out of this from the get go. I don't play games with people well at all.

Yeah, it was tough. Lesley was pissed for awhile, I think I could have handled it the other way with success now that I have been through it. I can tell ya for sure my blood pressure was sky high during that phone call. One wrong aggressive response from the cat lady and I may have went a different route. I just tried to use what she was saying as position to point out the advantages of us handling here emotions with compassion and care. If she would t have showed understanding I would have been stone cold and ended the call. We had payment before Lesley got off the phone. Like Joe said when u takes to him about it. She can give me a bad review, then I was gonna turn you boys loss on my site and the others. 

Joe's List. Can't get better than that.

Dam Ryan you are a pro when it comes to resolving customer service issues.

Joe, Did you really give little poodles dirty looks 

Remember boys I worked at a Country Club. You handle people completely different in these environments. 12 years experience serving people who think they are always right.

I would have had 10 pounds of live crickets delivered through the front door slot late at night

Ryan, Great job handling that like you did!...Big props to you Man!@!    

I gota say, you're much more patient and cool headed than I am, with only a fifth of the years dealing with crap like this that I've been............I gota respect that.   

Get this.........

I actually got a Bad (1 star) Yelp review from some impatient foreign ass hole last night, and the part that really pisses me off is he IS NOT even a customer of MINE!.........I was about ready to go threw the roof last night, but I have learned to to not react quickly to stuff like this.......and after sleeping on it, I'm still not thrilled about it, but I no longer feel like strangling the Douche!   

The A-Hole called me yesterday morn 8am and left a VM about getting a cleaning quote, I was extremely busy yesterday working and working on my equip to I could keep working lol, so as a result I didn't call him back right away...........so then at 2pm the Douche leaves this ONE star review on Yelp (see below), mind you, I have about 25 reviews on Yelp, all of which are 5 stars, left by actual customers I've done work for......and like I said, this guy I've never met, talked to, or let alone done work for before, and he decides to leave me this one star review....WTF, I'm pissed again just typing this!   ..Here's his review, what do you guys think?!??............

Frank..

Well, I am sorry I can't share all the excitement.
I called on Friday, March 7th at 8:00 AM and left a Message.
I left my Name, Phone #, Time of Day, and Message.

I needed some Carpet repair and cleaning done since I just got through with some Remodeling.
Needless to say, several Rooms needed to be cleaned, Traffic areas taken care of and most of all, some Areas needed to be re-stretched since I added a Wall and had to cut the existing Carpet.

Anyways, it is now 2:17 PM on the same Day, and no-one has called me back.
How long should I wait?
2 hours?
4 Hours?
Over 6 Hours?
How long would you wait?

What if I just had a flooded House and needed immediate attention?
Too bad, I will take my Business elsewhere.

BTW sorry for Hy-Jackin' ur thread,   it just reminded me of this similar, unreasonable, hard to deal with person/customer.  

Ryan, wow to you sir, well done, it happened to me too once last year, almost got a neg review but I managed to talk her out of it by just being humble, even though my blood is boiling.

Dave, I should've warned you about yelp custys, sometimes there's one or two that think they're the president and can't wait to get a call back, I've seen similar review about not returning phone calls fast enough and he gave the company a bad review, I'm going to see if it was the same person, I'll text you later if it was the same douche.

how old was the kat lady when she threaten to use feedback blackmail reviews that is the ploy of the younger set

She is mid forty