Why Anaita blocked a customer for abusing her team
Anaita recounts a customer who berated a Hero Packaging team member over custom tissue paper production times, escalating to abusive language on the phone and by email. She had the customer fully refunded, blocked across phone, email and domain, and sent home the shaken staff member, reinforcing that team wellbeing comes before any sale.
The lessons
Put your team's wellbeing above any single sale, no matter the customer's order value.
Set a zero-tolerance policy for abusive customer behavior and enforce it immediately.
Offer a rush order fee as a clear alternative when customers demand faster turnaround than stated on your website.
Document and communicate production timelines clearly on your website to prevent disputes.
When a team member is rattled by a customer, send them home and handle the fallout yourself.
Questions people ask
What do you do when a customer is abusive to your staff?
Anaita refunded the customer's order completely, blocked him from ever purchasing again, and cut off his phone, email and domain access. She also sent the affected team member home because she was genuinely shaken. Her policy is that the team always comes first, regardless of how much a customer has spent.
Transcript
I am this close to naming and shaming a customer that emailed us and called us multiple times today. I was at a conference today and I got these messages from the team and someone said, "Someone is being rude to someone in our team again, tissue paper customer." And I said, "Who? Tell me what he said.
Do you want me to call you?" And I did end up calling her and I could tell she was so shaken up. She was really, really upset. And this is a girl who is really sweet, really kind, and so to see her shaken up really made me feel upset.
This guy ordered custom tissue paper from us, and it clearly says on our website that it takes 5 to 7 business days to print and ship your custom tissue paper. talks to him on the phone, and she is getting his artwork approved and doing all the stuff that we usually do, and he said, "Well, I want it immediately," and she said, "Well, it's a 5-day production time," and he started to get really, really angry, and she said, "If you want it, really quickly, we can charge you a rush order fee. And he got even angrier, starts being exceptionally rude, and not just yelling at her, but using terms and words that are so unacceptable. And when she starts to say, I can't help you if you're going to talk to me in this language, he said, well, I'm not sexually abusing you and I'm not being racist, so I'm not doing anything wrong.
After that phone call, he is now emailing continuously, like he won't stop emailing words and sentences. And that's when I speak to her and and I say, "You need to refund his order completely. You need to block him as a customer. I'm going to block him on Aircall.
We're going to block his email address and also his domain." Then I proceed to send him this email. I just said, "Your communication is appalling and inappropriate. You have been blocked as a customer.
I understand that you haven't actually read the website and it's completely your fault. And if you communicate with us further, I will take legal action." Ultimately, I sent the customer service girl home because she was genuinely rattled. I'm going to reiterate over and over and over again that my team comes first.
I don't care who you are and how many times you've purchased from us. If you are rude, you will never be able to buy from Hero again.
