retail workers are not your slaves

[snoopygirl]

Every single person should be forced to work a customer service or retail job for at least one year of life.  I really think that it'd be nice to let everyone understand why they need to be nice to the poor person who's stuck dealing with their antics.   

Perhaps we should initiate an exchange program.  Because I've often said that part of a sales clerk's training (or anyone in customer service) should entail spending a day in the customer's shoes. Perhaps then it would become obvious why customers object when the grocery bagger tosses a ton of heavy canned goods on top of our (expensive) produce, or why we don't wish to be handed change by someone who is wiping his or her runny nose with his or her hands, or why we complain about waiting for service while the employee finishes gossiping on her cell phone....


Yes but you can complain about those things as a customer as a retail person I can't. I can not say anything when you grab the bags out of my hand muttering that I bagged all wrong so it makes me wonder if you are going to throw it at my head. I have to suck it up when a customer tells me to find a new profession. I also cant say anything when a customer wipes his runny nose or his kids and then hands me the money or hands me stuff his child drooled on or when a customer decides to be gross and hide  lunch meat in the canned goods and it goes bad. As for a retail person on their phone we never do that but yes a customer can hold up the line placing an order for pizza in the checkout line. Ugh.

[Rei-chan]

Every single person should be forced to work a customer service or retail job for at least one year of life.  I really think that it'd be nice to let everyone understand why they need to be nice to the poor person who's stuck dealing with their antics.  

Perhaps we should initiate an exchange program.  Because I've often said that part of a sales clerk's training (or anyone in customer service) should entail spending a day in the customer's shoes. Perhaps then it would become obvious why customers object when the grocery bagger tosses a ton of heavy canned goods on top of our (expensive) produce, or why we don't wish to be handed change by someone who is wiping his or her runny nose with his or her hands, or why we complain about waiting for service while the employee finishes gossiping on her cell phone....

Respect is a two way street. No one should be "stuck dealing with antics", on either side of the cash register. As for customers who treat store employees like dirt... I'd have no problem with a manager who suggested that the customer shop elsewhere. Whoever said the "customer is always right" had quite obviously never dealt with customers...

I totally agree with the 2nd part of this statement about respect.  I will say this though, as to the 1st part about an exchange program: 

I think I can safely say that the majority of retail salespeople, cashiers, etc. have spent time in the "customer's shoes".  Do we not all buy food, gas, clothing, pay rent/utilities, etc?  Therefore, we have all been customers at one point or another, and know what some customers deal with. 

However, quite a few of the customers I deal with on a daily basis treat us like animals, or worse, animal excrement, for no logical reason whatsoever.  I think that if these certain people had to put up with for one hour what I had to for an eight hour shift, they would run screaming into the streets.   

[mumma to KMC]

However, quite a few of the customers I deal with on a daily basis treat us like animals, or worse, animal excrement, for no logical reason whatsoever.  I think that if these certain people had to put up with for one hour what I had to for an eight hour shift, they would run screaming into the streets.   

In my not so bright days, I dated a guy that thought the person at the Burger King drive thru was his whipping boy or girl. I really liked this guy (or was it that he really liked me and I was too stupid to realize that I didn't have to like him back....) Any time we would go out to eat or order in, he was very condescending to the person behind the counter, waiting on us or the delivery guy. I don't think that he had ever worked a day in his life in customer service. The relationship ended the day he threw a box fan across the living room because the pizza guy was late with the pizza. Seriously he watched the clock and when it reached 45 minutes (exactly) after he placed the order, he called the pizza place, was told it was on its way, he said cancel the order and proceeded to throw a major fit. (He was 27) Adios! To this day, when I run in to him (very infrequently btw) I wonder how he managed to keep the woman who became his wife around and if he still talks down to those he deems lower then him.

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

Any time we would go out to eat or order in, he was very condescending to the person behind the counter, waiting on us or the delivery guy.

My uncle is like this, except with black people. (Like I needed a reason to detest him even more!) Whenever he speaks to someone of a different colour, his voice rises in volume and he talks like he's talking to a three year-old: "Did... you... put... the... petrol... in... my... CAR? I... asked... you... to... fill... it... up!" How some of the people he's spoken to like that haven't strangled him I don't know, because I used to feel like doing it every time.

Some people just think they are better than others for arbitrary reasons.

[Gigi]

Suze, I agree that the store would be justified in billing the whole display case to the crazy woman.  If, however, they had done that and sent the note they would have immediately been boycotted by this family (who spent literally mega thousands in there annually),  bad mouthed to everyone in town and generally been made to suffer.  I can only hope that the next several times they were called upon to make party invitations and accessories for this gang that they marked everything up sufficiently to cover the damage that they inflicted. Maybe they had an automatic 15% price increase for this bunch as built-in damage control.

Willow, LOL I also lost my appetite for anything edible that came from that shop.  If the beast got away with it once I'm sure he did  it again.

I would probably not make a profitable shop owner since there are people who are just too much trouble and I wouldn't want their business. 

[FoxPaws]

Many years ago, before the copy chain I worked for switched to corporate mandated pricing, I was introduced to the practice of "PITA charges" for certain, ummm.....high maintenance customers. We would charge them for every little thing we did, and institute set-up fees, and proofing charges. Behaving like a jerk could also extend the turn around time for the jerk's job.

We did it in reverse as well. Customers who were pleasant, or cut us some slack when we were slammed, got "nice guy" discounts, and their projects would get "worked in" whenever possible. I've gone above and beyond on more than one occasion simply because someone remembered I was a human being.

A lot of people would be amazed at what they could get, or get away with, simply by being nice. I'm not talking about tipping, gushing, or that phony, we're-all-on-the-same-team-fake-smile crap; just plain common courtesey and treating others with respect.

[cheyne]

Once, when I was a waitress at a bar and grill (many years ago), I had a customer who tipped $0.50 for he, his wife and son every time they came to eat (the bill was usually between $15 and $20 in 1980 dollars).  I never said anything to him, but the owner (who was also the cook) was well aware of this customers habit.  One night he brings in 5 of his buddies who were in our area to go deer hunting.  I got the 6 top, and proceeded to give them excellent service.  The owner made their steaks to perfection, and these ol' boys had a really nice dining experience.  When it came time to present the bill, the buddies decided to split the check and pay hosts share too.  Then host pipes up with "That's OK, I'll get the tip!"  My heart sank at those words!  The bill was around $90. and I had certainly given service for at least a 15% tip.  You guessed it, I got the 50 cents.  I went running into the kitchen and told the owner, who proceeded to literally RUN out of the kitchen and corner the host.  Of course, all his buddies were standing there and heard my boss chew this guy out for such a lousy tip.  The buddies then gave me a $30. tip and looked at the host like he was a worm.  At that point, the host says to my boss "You shouldn't talk to me like that, I'm the customer, and the customer is always right!"  My boss replied, "I don't know who made-up that saying but it isn't true.  I'm the owner of this establishment, and here I'M always right!"  That was over 25 years ago, and I still hear Lee saying those words when I hear someone whine, "But the customer is ALWAAAYS right!!!"

[Scritzy]

Sissie is always complaining that she gets lousy service everywhere and that she is going to "sue their ***es off!" What my sister doesn't realize is that she goes into a store or restaurant or government office with the idea that she's better than everyone else there and either comes across as angry or condescending. I've heard her talk to waitstaff at restaurants as if they were five years old and stupid. It embarrasses me, which is why I don't go too many places with her. And she's the one with the retail experience. I have never worked retail, nor food service. I couldn't do it. I could not deal with the public day after day after day. (It was bad enough when I worked in newspaper.)

Therefore I try my dead-level best to be nice to anyone in the public-service sector. Heaven knows what kind of horse hockey that person has dealt with. I'm not going to add to his/her misery by being nasty. I try to be a good customer, and in return I get good customer service 99 percent of the time. And oftentimes, I ask to see the manager — not to complain, but to tell him or her what good service I got and how much I appreciate it.

This doesn't mean I'm a doormat. I won't let anyone rip me off. More than 20 years ago I had an automobile repair shop try to rip me off, and I bet that guy's ears are still smoking from what I said to him. (What can I say … I was young.) The moron told me my brakes had failed right after a brake job because "Sometimes that happens after a brake job because when we replace the fluid it's too hard on the master cylinder. Your pretty little car just busted its master cylinder. But we can fix it for XXX dollars." Yeah, right.

[HogwartsAlum]

Something I could never understand is the nasty things people do in dressing rooms!  The dressing room is there to try on the clothes before you buy them.  It is not the place to :

-have sex
-make out
-change your underwear
-change your tampon
-change your pad
-pee

Oh, GROSS...I'm never taking off my shoes in a dressing room ever again! 

[Gemini]

I think I can safely say that the majority of retail salespeople, cashiers, etc. have spent time in the "customer's shoes".  Do we not all buy food, gas, clothing, pay rent/utilities, etc?  Therefore, we have all been customers at one point or another, and know what some customers deal with.

And I think I can safely say that a great many of the people who frequent retail stores and other service establishments have themselves spent time on the other side of the equation, even if it was only part-time or in their student days. 

The problem is that, counter-intuitively, we do not always learn how to tap into those personal experiences to make things go more smoothly once we're back on the other side of the cash register. We often adopt an adversarial "us vs. them" mentality between employees and customers. This isn't unique to retail, btw, but I think it's a big problem in retail and other service industries. Hence, the need for a (virtual) "exchange program". When employees who serve the public learn to keep in mind what it's like to be the customer, and not view the customers as enemies-waiting-to-happen, their interactions tend to go a lot more smoothly. Likewise, customers who learn to treat the person behind the cash register (or answering the phone, or carrying their bags) with respect by adjusting for that person's environment and situation (hectic, end of shift, people getting pushy, etc.), rather than automatically anticipating bad service, they tend to have much better service experiences. Not 100%, of course. There's always the unreasonable customer who's just hell-bent on jerkiness, or the spoiled part-time princess who genuinely couldn't care less if she leaves everyone on hold for twenty minutes while she does her nails... but for the most part, we get the service and respect we earn. Both ways.

I don't need to have been a waitress to know how to be decent toward restaurant staff anymore than my waitress needs to know what it was like to be a lowly p.a. before she can serve me well. We both just need some good old-fashioned manners and an exchange program. She can see I'm dying for a hot cup of tea, I can see she's doing the work of three people. We can meet halfway. 

[kingsrings]

I wonder how the poor lady is doing that had coffee tossed in her face is doing.  The article said that she had first degree burns over the left side of her face and sholder.

I hope that she presses charges - no one should be treated that way

Absolutely. I hope she also sues him for everything he's got. Customer service is a scary place. Once years ago when I was working in the college bookstore, a customer became irate because the clerk wouldn't allow him to return his textbook. So he pitched it at her. Thankfully she had good enough reflexes and ducked out of the way, because it was a large, heavy book. Unfortunately, the security guards weren't around to confront him and he got away.

[kingsrings]

However, quite a few of the customers I deal with on a daily basis treat us like animals, or worse, animal excrement, for no logical reason whatsoever.  I think that if these certain people had to put up with for one hour what I had to for an eight hour shift, they would run screaming into the streets.   

In my not so bright days, I dated a guy that thought the person at the Burger King drive thru was his whipping boy or girl. I really liked this guy (or was it that he really liked me and I was too stupid to realize that I didn't have to like him back....) Any time we would go out to eat or order in, he was very condescending to the person behind the counter, waiting on us or the delivery guy. I don't think that he had ever worked a day in his life in customer service. The relationship ended the day he threw a box fan across the living room because the pizza guy was late with the pizza. Seriously he watched the clock and when it reached 45 minutes (exactly) after he placed the order, he called the pizza place, was told it was on its way, he said cancel the order and proceeded to throw a major fit. (He was 27) Adios! To this day, when I run in to him (very infrequently btw) I wonder how he managed to keep the woman who became his wife around and if he still talks down to those he deems lower then him.

I had a boss like that once. It was embarrassing having to dine with her because she would always find a reason to get annoyed at the person who served us. Perhaps people like your former bf and my former boss have, for whatever reasons, decided to initiate their own caste system.

[Lunadiana75]

Sissie is always complaining that she gets lousy service everywhere and that she is going to "sue their ***es off!" What my sister doesn't realize is that she goes into a store or restaurant or government office with the idea that she's better than everyone else there and either comes across as angry or condescending. I've heard her talk to waitstaff at restaurants as if they were five years old and stupid. It embarrasses me, which is why I don't go too many places with her. 

Yeah, I have noticed that people who complain they "get bad service everywhere" are rude to the sales people.  I rarely, very rarely, get bad srevice, because I treat people with respect and they respond in kind.