Comments on: We all lie – every day!

By: Pleasant Wangai

Pleasant Wangai — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:07:50 +0000

About customer service, I remember attending a “training” where for several days I observed a customer care person talking every so sweetly in every conversation to customers. After telling her how impressed I was, she confided that many times, what she really wants to say is “Oh, drop dead, you old cow”.

By: Imaan

Imaan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:49:00 +0000

Yes and very well said…I think we all stand at fault for these phrases that we all say without thinking twice about them…
Here’s another one:

“Am on my way” means “I am getting into the shower and will get out of the house in an hour’s time”

And for the men…(well not all of them): “I love you” means…”I really am saying this because I want to continue sleeping with you and because if I don’t respond to you telling me I love you will interrupt this hot steamy session we are in the middle of”!

By: Gishungwa

Gishungwa — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:15:54 +0000

“Yours sincerely”, “kind regards” and offers of “endless apologies” on not meeting expectations. Language sure is crucial. Great post.

By: Sonya Kassam

Sonya Kassam — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:05:17 +0000

Some more lies:

“I’m just 2 mins away. Pls wait for me.”

“Oh yes mami…it’s very fresh – ni tamu sana” (this is one inevitably from the veg market!!).

By: Sunny Bindra

Sunny Bindra — Mon, 21 May 2007 15:50:22 +0000

Barbara:

Some more:

‘Having considered all options’ usually means ‘we decided this on gut-feel from the beginning’.

‘You’re entitled to your opinion’ means ‘I wish I could lock you up for disagreeing with me.’

By: Barbara Steenstrup

Barbara Steenstrup — Sun, 20 May 2007 21:38:54 +0000

Language is sooo wonderful! One that drives me crazy is ‘in due course.’ It usually means ‘never’.

By: Barbara Steenstrup

Barbara Steenstrup — Sun, 20 May 2007 21:37:10 +0000

I love language, so I loved this one. And true it is – how about the off-the-shelf phrases that go into proposals and reports?

By: Joseph Akello

Joseph Akello — Wed, 16 May 2007 06:28:10 +0000

Hey Sunny,

Once again, as always, you are spot on! A lot of times we have, in one way or another, used these “euphemistic” phrases to hide our true feelings and intents. To quote a celebrated African Reggae lyricist, Lucky Dube, “if you stand for the truth you will always stand alone!” Which is why, even though we don’t mean what we say, we sugar-coat the bitter truth with some nice phrase!

The unfortunate thing is, these “polite” phrases and more new ones will be coined to shield us from each other’s barbaric and raw emotions. That way, the world will keep going. Yes, this world we are living in!!

Thanks again for your nice social commentaries and this blog. Cheers!

By: Sunny Bindra

Sunny Bindra — Sun, 13 May 2007 09:08:58 +0000

Allan
Don’t consume as is – take it with a pinch of salt! Of course not all customer-service personnel are liars. I was merely trying to capture the banality of the job and the need to maintain an act for an unending stream of callers…

By: Allan Mukabi

Allan Mukabi — Sun, 13 May 2007 08:46:28 +0000

We all lie – every day!
Hallo Sunny Bindra,
What an interesting write-up here. But I would like to disagree with you on the last line: “Thank you for calling; how may I help you?” You insinuated that people at call centres act really bored…oh, another call please bore me, kind of ideology….I totally disagree with you. The article was fantastic; but you negated the whole idea by customer service criticism.
Those who work at call centres really do a great job to the last breath; trying to represent the image of the company; offering solutions ie one-resolution on complaints-follow up and feedback on issues not resolved promptly! Honestly the ‘please bore me….’ should not have featured in the article.
Depends on which call centre you meant…not in the modern world!
Anyway, good script though.