The Polite Face of Panic: How Customer Service Reflects Corporate Values

Recently, I had two customer service experiences that were weirdly similar—and equally frustrating.

First, a major telecom company mishandled my internet setup—an agent couldn’t find my address and, instead of owning it, gave me misleading info about shipping and setup times in order to close the sale.

The second experience was with a major international hotel brand. I cancelled a reservation within the allowed time and was assured there would be no penalty. Still, I was double charged. When I brought it up at the front desk, I wasn’t just dismissed—I was made to feel like I had misunderstood the policy entirely. It was frustrating, to say the least.

In both cases, once I escalated things, the customer service teams who stepped in were amazing—professional, kind, and thorough. They really turned the situations around, and I’m grateful for that.

However, it left me wondering: were these just isolated missteps, or signs of something deeper? Maybe the pressure to perform is so intense that some employees feel cornered into stretching the truth just to meet expectations. Are we creating a culture where the pressure to meet metrics is so high that employees feel forced to stretch the truth or shift blame just to survive the day?

It's a thought that ties into something I’ve been reflecting on lately: corporate gaslighting—how it seeps into company culture, affects how employees treat customers, and even how they view their own work. It is major catalyst behind the slow erosion of honesty within a company culture.

When employees are constantly squeezed by impossible targets, shifting policies, and unspoken pressures, integrity can slip—not because people want to be dishonest, but because the system rewards quick fixes over authentic solutions.

So if you ever have a rough experience with a customer service representative, once the dust settles, take a moment to think about what might be happening behind the scenes. Pause to consider:

What kind of pressures might be shaping the way people are showing up? And how does leadership play a role in the culture that allowed that experience to happen?

Sometimes the real story isn’t about that one conversation—it’s about the culture that conversation came from.