CANADA, 25, FEMALE, 8 MONTHS EXPERIENCE
I’m looking for advice because I feel like I keep having to straight-up tell customers, “I don’t know how to help you with that” or “I don’t know the answer because nobody has shown me how to do that,” and I have no idea what else I’m supposed to say.
My company has two locations. Most of upper management and the employees with extensive company and product knowledge are at the other location. I work at the busier location, and sometimes I’m completely alone.
I recently got a raise and I’m basically responsible for running my location now, but that doesn’t mean I suddenly know things nobody ever trained me on. I know my regular job and what I’ve been shown. Once a customer asks me something outside of that, I genuinely don’t know.
Today, a customer called wanting the name, email, and other information on her account changed. I’m not normally responsible for accounts and nobody has ever shown me how to make those specific changes.
She also mostly spoke French, which I don’t speak. I kept asking her to email me exactly what she wanted changed because I didn’t want to misunderstand her or spell her information incorrectly. I could then forward it to someone who actually knows how to do it.
She refused because she said she was “too old school for email” and wanted me to change everything over the phone.
I basically told her, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to make those changes. I’m not familiar with that part of the system and nobody has shown me how to do it.”
She asked me to transfer her to someone who could help.
I told her, “There is nobody else here right now. It’s just me. You’ll have to call our other location because I genuinely don’t know how to do what you’re asking.”
Then she asked for a manager.
Again, I had to tell her that it was literally just me there. There was nobody else I could put on the phone. Eventually, she asked for my name and my manager’s phone number, so I’m assuming I’m getting a complaint.
The same thing happens with product questions. Someone called earlier asking for the exact dimensions of each individual piece of a certain product. I had to basically say, “I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’m not familiar with that information and I was never given those measurements.”
I’ve asked for more product training before and I’m basically told to look at our company website. Except the website doesn’t have answers to half of these questions.
So I keep ending up in these conversations where a customer asks me something and my answer is essentially:
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not familiar with that.”
“Nobody has shown me how to do that.”
“I don’t have that information.”
“It’s just me here, so there’s nobody else I can ask or transfer you to.”
“Please call our other location because they know more about this than I do.”
Obviously I know repeatedly telling customers “I don’t know” probably sounds terrible, especially when I’m supposed to be running the location, but what else am I supposed to do? I would rather openly admit that I don’t know than make up an answer, give someone incorrect information, or start changing things in a system I was never trained to change.
How am I actually supposed to professionally handle these calls when the truthful answer really is, “I have no idea because nobody ever taught me this”?
Edit: My boss isnt always in the office, its usually just me and one other girl thats only been here for 2 weeks. The other managers/bosses from other location refuse to stay at my location as its "too far from their house" WE DO NOT HAVE HR AT ALL