Customers!

I remember the old brown paper bags 50 years ago.
I like the way plastic bags feel in my hands a lot better.





David

Plastic bags tend to cut the hands and they never biodegrade . . . in fact, all the plastic that was ever made is still with us.

Another sort of customer is the one that asks for a recommendation.

Some people are great. Others should have limited access to the rest of humanity.

There is a woman who always tells the tale of how she was going to make such and such dish but hadn't started it on time and so has to put it off to tomorrow and something else.

I am a good cook and I sometimes fail to plan ahead . . . generally, I don't let that stop me . . . I just eat later . . . but this woman does this every Saturday.

She cornered a female co-worker and I the other day, asking for an inexpensive white to put in her dish that she could also drink. My co-worker turned to me and asked what I thought.

I knew she hadn't enough patience to deal with this picky procastinator.

I suggested the wine of the month . . . mild, dry but tasty.

Three minutes of hemming, hawing and whining followed in which she denied the wine was dry. While palates differ . . . this wine is extraordinarily dry. She waited long enough until the effective manager finished his task in the basement and could wait on her.

She came back and told us that he knows her "taste buds."

My Eastern European counterpart let out a stream of four letter words as soon as she was out the door.

Wasting time with her nonsense, was her finishing remark.

Gosh, your job would be so much easier if you didn't have ANY customers huh?

Why complain about something so completely out of your control?

It's called venting for a reason maporsche. Everyone who works in retail knows that our work lives would be perfect without 70% of customers. Customers seem to think that we are there to serve them. Nothing could be further than the truth. We are there to stock shelves and display crap items cunningly so that people will choose the product with the highest profit margin. My store has the 20 second rule -- do not waste more than 20 seconds on a customer -- seriously. I have way to much grunt work to do to waste my time with customers.

I know where POM is coming from. My biggest headaches are middle aged to older women with what I call Pampered Princess Syndrome. Their parents and then their husband(s) always treated them like glass and they expect everybody to do their bidding and hold their hand. It's exhausting to encounter anyone with PPS.

I'm sure the owners of your store would disagree. And if they wouldn't, then they're really harming their bottom lines. If it weren't for customers you (and others) wouldn't be employed.

I did retail. Currentlly I work with an automated voice response system for a large bank. Believe me when I say that I can understand that certain customers are more work than others and don't 'get' the system or the process. But I'm fully aware that w/o customers, I wouldn't have my job. The perceived fault of the customers not understanding something is not THEIR fault; it's mine. It's not their problem; it's mine. They are not supposed to be the experts, I am.

"Waste 20 seconds on the customer" -- WOW, that speaks volumes.

I'm curious, have you said this to the owner?


This is why people are moving towards the internet for their shopping.

Retail is tough. Customer Service is tough. People are tough. Thankfully there are always good moments. And a paycheck.

I always try to remember my annoyances with customers when I am a customer. I can get pissy pretty quickly these days. Pissy Missy - yes - I have heard that one before.

I think it is because people are lazy butts. Myself included. Of course I wouldn't put it that way when talking about myself. It is just being more efficient with my time and energy

I shop on the internet because the customer service and information is better.

I hate talking to "customer service" clerks probably more than they hate talking to me.

The attitudes expressed in this thread are appaling to me as a manager of employees, the owner of a customer service system, a stock holder of many customer service coorporations, a customer myself, and as a PERSON.


I hope you never have to deal with a customer again, and your business subequently goes out of business, and you subsequently are left without a job. I'm 100% POSITIVE that in your next job interview you'll change your tune 180 degrees; bunch of hypocrites.

/rant

It was meant for a vent maporsche. I know Tai Chi would never be rude to a customer...and I am more than sure that she is so much more than helpful.

I thought that was noted earlier.

But I surely hope that neither of these folks are left without a job. I wouldn't wish that on anyone in this economy.

Did you read what she wrote?

I don't care if it's venting or not; they're wrong and do not fully understand what they 'want' and the consequences of it.

I spend a lot of time at my company trying to improve customer service with our automated voice system. I've been involved in dozens of focus groups with our bank customers. I've read dozens of books on customer service in general. I participate in summits and conferences with other businesses focused around customer service. I spend a good chunk of my life trying to improve service for customers.

I don't think I could be any more disgusted with the attitudes of these two employees.

I'd be very surprised if I were the only member of A2K to strongly object to the thoughts expressed on this thread. Not only surprised, but disapointed.

Pissy-Missy? I have never ever seen you lose your cool, Missy. You're Miss Charming all the time!

As for retail: there are certain people who never should work in retail as they're
not customer oriented - I am one of them! I wouldn't even attempt to be nice
to an unruly customer.

given where T. C. works, I'd suspect that the manager/franchisee has passed that exact message on to their staff

there are definitely retail operations out there that think that any direct customer interaction is a waste of time

retailers who promote/encourage customer interaction staff differently - they tend to have more staff who are expected to deal with customers/have less stocking etc responsibilities

Good grief maporsche, the 20 second rule is an unwritten rule of my company not me! I regularly spend way more time than that with most of my customers and no, I am never rude to a customer. I have, however, been yelled at, barked at, and had fingers snapped at me. Retail is not for the faint at heart. Please don't tell me that if a customer is unsatisfied I have done something wrong. There are plenty of people in the world who are just window shopping and have nothing better to do than waste my time. They have no intention of buying and are never happy with any product you suggest. You sound like you work in customer service -- that is all about placating the customer. I work on the floor of a large store. My job is all about upselling -- increasing the size of the "basket" (the customer's cart amount). Pushing products on customers that they don't even know they need or want (and isn't that what marketing is all about?) isn't my idea of a good time but for the moment it's a job. I do my job extremely well -- just ask my boss -- doesn't mean I worship my customers. They are just people and as we all know not all people are reasonable, grateful or polite. I put up with them anyway.

I bought a bottle of wine last night, since I was going to a neighbors house for dinner.

I looked up on the internet what kind of wine goes with hamburgers.
A nice Austrailian shiraz was suggested.
I went to Whole Foods which on the way home, and was directed to the Austrailian wine.
My selection was an amusing little wine called Woop Woop, which I was informed was Austrailian for "Out in in the middle of nowhere"
Since it had the most interesting name, I said that I would just have to go with the Woop Woop.

Passing through the ice cream section, I looked to see if they had any spumoni. the guy working there admitted he didn't know what it was, so I told him all about it. "No, we don't have that." he said (which surpirsed me).

He then told me he thought spumoni was a made up word, since the only time he'd ever head it was in a movie, where the word "spumoni" was used as the safe word.
So I sidled up to him and said out of the corner of my mouth "That's what I was trying to do.....psssst.....spumoni...."
He thought that was pretty funny.

Then I told him whenever I head Afganistan I also say "afganistan banana stand" to myself, which was the word used to take someone out of their post hypnotic suggestion in the move The Hot Rock.

When I was checking out, the cashier asked me if I wanted a sleeve. I thought that meant one of those gift bags. So, I was surprised when she put the bottle in one of those little skinny sacks. You never would have known by looking at my face though. I was cool as a cumcumber.

I can turn anything into an event.

I couldn't even finish my entire hamburger, it was so big. I should have cut it in half and given that half to Wally to eat.

Truely, Plain: since plastic bags replaced brown paper bags however many years ago:
thay have never cut my hand nor made me feel in any way uncomfortable.
I have never heard of anyone having been cut by a plastic bag,
tho I 'll take your word for it.





David

You are a delightful customer.

Well...that is arguable But thank you!