A customer service worker has gone viral on TikTok after sharing some creative and humorous ways to “subtly irritate” rude customers.
The video was posted by Kaelin (@whatsinthekoolaid) and has managed to accumulate over 91,300 views as of Saturday. In the clip, they share some personal tips and tricks, saying, “Just because you work in customer service doesn’t mean you have to like the customers. I don’t usually. Actually, I just got a new job like a month ago, and I don’t hate any of my customers, but I know some of you guys are deep in the trenches so here are some ways to subtly irritate them when they deserve it.”
@whatsinthekoolaid an underrated method of de-escalation is total confusion
♬ original sound – kaelin
One of Kaelin’s favorite methods is the “lazy eye.” As the creator explains, “if they’re yelling at you, hit them with the lazy eye. Pro tip: You can get a similar effect by just staring at the center of their forehead, it’ll just weird them out. I can’t explain it, just try it.”
Another tip is to “go slow” with transactions.
“If they have a basket on the counter, this is my favorite thing to do. They bring a basket up to the counter, you slowly take everything out one by one, gently place it on the counter, because you don’t want to break it, that would be rude,” Kaelin says sarcastically. “They hand you cash, you are diligently counting that money, you must be sure. And if they get irritated, well, that is the point.”
But the last and perhaps the most entertaining tip is to tell customers they resemble Kris Jenner.
As Kaelin explains it, “I’ve never done this one, but I feel like it would be really funny regardless of who the person is or what they look like, be like: ‘Has anyone ever told you, you look exactly like Kris Jenner?’ When they inevitably are like ‘no’ you can say a couple of things. It can be like, ‘you know, it must just be your vibe’ because they’re gonna be like ‘what the fuck does that mean’ or just be like ‘You know, I must not know who Kris Jenner is.’”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kaelin via TikTok comment.
Many customer service workers resonated with the video, expressing their own frustrations with dealing with difficult customers, but also offering unique ideas to annoy them.
“Start your count over every time they speak or sigh heavily,” one commenter suggested.
“Overly inspect their money too,” another user added.
One wrote, “My secret trick is to pause for 4-5 seconds before replying while staring into their soul.”
While these tips may not always be professional or appropriate in a customer service setting, they can certainly add a bit of humor to an otherwise frustrating situation.
