Flirting With Customers

My Experience…

At the onset of my customer service career, I used to receive calls where some of the guys calling in would claim to have fallen in love with my voice or with my service, others just fell in love with my name. Depending on my mood on any particular day or depending on what the caller said, I would either smile or feel annoyed (but still act nice to the caller and vent afterward). A handful of customers asked for my personal number and as usual I would say, ‘I am sorry to disappoint you but that is against the company’s terms and conditions.’ But this robotic response would actually make some callers try an alternative of asking me to note down their number and call back later; honestly I was tempted to note down some numbers but at the back of my mind I knew I either had to choose what put food on my table over venturing into the unestablished. I chose to keep it professional.

I know of a few people who would save those numbers and go on coffee dates with clients later and I thought that they were very daring. A lady colleague even received M-PESA and traveled to Mombasa to meet the client and the rest is 🤐.

On 14th August, I went to my local beauty kibandski for pedicure and gel application and found a new guy. The lady who usually makes me was feeling unwell so she introduced the new guy to me and requests me to let him do the pedicure instead.
As the guy was doing his job, I was on a very long phone call with a friend describing some personal issues I had gone through; I thought my secret was safe because I was speaking in my mother tongue.
When the guy finished the pedicure, he asked for my number and I just gave it to him without even bothering to know why he had asked for it in the first place.

lovebondings.com

Ten minutes after I left the place, I received a call from a new number and when I answered the pedicure guy introduced himself and said that he was only checking if I had arrived home safely. 🇦🇱My mind sensed something fishy. 🇦🇱

At midnight I received an SMS: ‘xowi xwi, I had ua story n felt it. Luv u’ and another ‘dont ignore me, i care.’ Can you guess what actually offended me more? His language. I guess I’m quite petty at times especially when it comes to grammar and language; in another life, I should have been an English teacher.

For two days, I was debating whether to tell the business owner about the new hire or just let it slide. Just after I had decided to let it slide, the guy texted me again asking for 💰. I decided to tell the lady and even showed her the messages. She was quite defensive about her innocent employee but also sorry for my experience. She promised to talk to him.

When I went back two weeks later, the lady told me that she fired him because more customers complained about him and she had even lost a few customers. I was lucky enough to get a free gel application for being a loyal customer despite having a bad experience.

This got me asking myself some questions:

Is it okay to flirt with customers?
In my opinion, this depends on the nature of the business. I see most pub owners encouraging their waitresses to be super friendly so as to attract more customers or retain them.
Flirting does not work everywhere though. We should always choose professionalism.

Is it acceptable for an employee to go on a date with a customer?
Unless you are a salesperson and going to close a deal with the customer, then this is definitely not a good option.

What impact does flirting or having a relationship with a customer have on a business?
More often than not, this would make you lose that customer and this behavior would create a bad brand image.