Ray Croc, the founder of McDonalds echoed a phrase that, “The customer is always right!” A wonderful sentiment however, it has now led to some customers, certainly not all, believing they can talk to staff in the most vexatious ways.  This has birthed the phrase, “Karens” for the ladies and “Kens” for the men. “Karens” and “Kens” are said to have a usual phrase of, “I demand to see your manager”.

Even when they can speak to the manager, they are not happy and will attempt to escalate it to the business owner.  Now sometimes this is necessary in a situation where a business has proven incompetent and the person in front of house is incapable of adequately resolving the issue. This would be a fair and reasonable process to take it to an appropriate person in authority to work on resolution.

Where Karens and Kens are different is they start shooting first and ask questions later.  They can be unreasonably rude and hostile and will jump up and down if they don’t get their way. The troubling part of this is that they will often target vulnerable young staff without mercy or remorse. Some of these people on the front line get used as a heat shield, even when they are trying to be helpful and understanding.

In this episode, we speak to Blake de Bruin about his experience in dealing with “Karens” and “Kens”. Blake has extensive experience in the pet care industry, having run his family-owned multi-award-winning pet resort business, which has been in his family for over 37 years. He also has sat on the board of the Pet Industry Association of Australia and currently sits as the Vice President of the Australian Pet Care Association.

The Podcast for Pet Carers is proudly sponsored by Pet Resorts Australia and Canine Evolution.

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