Customer Service Experience Narrative

Creative Non-Fiction Writing

You are a consumer, which means you are a customer, which also means you have had good, mediocre, and bad customer service experiences.

We're going to focus on the bad.

Writing Prompt

Write a one-page narrative about a time where you received or experienced bad customer service.

How to Approach this Narrative

This is a story. Start from the beginning.

Seems obvious, right? But we should be asking, when does the beginning start? All customer service experiences start with the customer's wants or needs. So where does your experience start? What did you want or need? How did that want or need come about? How did you choose the business or establishment to satisfy your want or need? What steps did you need to take to fullfill your needs? What were the barriers?

A good story needs a good setting.

A good setting has great detail. Great detail is established through keen observation of the senses. Place the reader directly in the scene. The reader should: See what you see. Smell what you smell. Hear what you hear. Taste what you taste. Feel what you feel. Intuit what you intuit.

The setting provides context, but characters make the story interesting.

Profile a character. Think like a psychologist. Be a detective. Observe details. Start with a person's physical appearance – this includes some of the basics – then weave in their personality (all business or warm and friendly), their mannerisms (hand gestures or standoffish).

Use dialogue to compliment your observations.

Dialogue brings a character to life and enhances your observations of the character. Mix your dialogue with those observations.

The hostess promptly led us to our booth in the corner of the restaurant. I could plainly see on my mom's face that she was not happy with this booth. She scrutinized the empty tables nearby but the hostess was oblivious to the crease of disapproval between my mom's eyebrows. A look I'd long become accustomed to. The waitress's eyes betrayed her practiced smile and bubbly voice; she knew this booth sucked.

"Here's your booth. Your waitress will be with you shortly."

Before my mom could raise any objections, she turned deftly in the opposite direction, her blonde, curly hair swinging around in a clear dismissal.

The plot completes the triad at the tip of the pyramid.

In this case, you are building a plot around a specific concept: as a consumer/customer, you are on a journey to fullfill a need or a want, but the business you seek out to fullfill this need or want fails to meet your expectations.

Finish strong.

In the end, reflect on how this experience will influence you as a customer in the future. Will go back to the business?

Nuts and Bolts

  1. 12-point font, single spaced (except between paragraphs)
  2. One page minimum – you are welcome to write more

Print your first draft for Sinks' to review