Customer Service

I should clarify: It's not worth the effort of being a dick to someone when all they want is a bit of food when they're going through a rough, rough night. Usually I'm a "by the book" kind of employee, but when you're dealing with serious personality disorder and drug addiction, sometimes you just lose the will to be an asshole by telling someone "no"

 

I love my job, mine is a neighborhood store, most of my customers and I have a mutually amiable relationship

entirley different animal

bitter and angry? only to some
as to customer who don't know how to ask for what they want, I'm not talking about someone who ask 'can you help me find....' for that customer I will spend the time and effort to make sure they get what they came for that they are happy and comfortable with their purchase and that they know I stand behind my product. I'm talking about the fucker who breaks into a conversation with another customer (that's me performing customer service) saying not 'excuse me' or 'where can I find' but "beer" as where is the. I find that disrespectful of the customer I was already talking to and me. If you are this guy/girl, if you're an ass when you encounter people in any service industry then you are likely not getting thier best service.
this is a small example of what passes forr a customer
Is that a big deal? Not so much, but I'm a bitter angry man

some of you people can't see beyond what's right in front of huh?

apparently I need to make it clear that I am not talking about people who treat others with respect
My comploaint is about the assholes who come into my store and the assholes otherwise respectful people become when they shop. It's widley known that retail shops companies are so in need of traffic that they'll accept near anything from their patrons and honestly if you want to take advantage of that fact do it,

example:

Terry is a regular customer usually shops on saturday(last day of the sale), she will occupy up to 3 people to help gather up what she'd like to buy, it's not that she can't find it cuz she had shopped her longer than some of my people have worked here
after an hour or two Terry anounces that she doesn't want the burden of having to carry all her shit two blocks to her house so instead can she have rainchecks for eveything
No Terry, you can't have rainchecks for stuff i got

a couple days later I am hand delivering the same shit for her at last weeks discount cuz Terry called the DM (District Manager)
At the house it took her 20 minutes to answer the door and in the end she didn't pay for shit
I was even harrassed by the police in a 1960's 'hey, black guy, what are you doing in this neighborhood' shit
Terry would wait until our sale was a couple days gone and demand rainchecks regadless if I had the product on hand or no

why not?

 

I get that. When I changed jobs, I took about 95% of my clients with me. The other 5% were pains in the ass, so I didn't tell them where I was going when I left. Honestly, of those 5% of companies, there was usually just one person that was so awful to deal with that I fired the entire company. It was a passive-aggressive way to handle things, but those were special circumstances. If I hadn't left, I still would have been putting up with their shit.

My point with that anecdote is that most folks are perfectly reasonable and pleasant. There are a few that aren't. When they're consumers, of course they're difficult to deal with. But the attitude that all consumers are like that is a killer. Ask folks why KMart and Sears (who are actually one and the same) are failing, and most folks will tell you that their customer service is terrible, they make it hard to buy things and that they treat customers like crap. The folks at Wal*Mart may have some crappy practices (receipt checkers, failing to pay overtime, etc.), but the employees at least realize that they need to be pleasant to the clientele.
--- merged: Aug 16, 2011 at 8:42 AM ---
issmmm - you need to go back and reread your first three posts. You made it abudantly clear that you're talking about ALL your customers, not just the rude ones. Several folks, including me, tried to give you a chance to clarify what you meant, which you did.

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Seems pretty clear to me who you were talking about.​

 

Yeah, see for me dealing with completely irrational, verbally abusive people is part of the job description. We're low-barrier, which means we handle the clients that get banned from other places... But you're still charged with keeping a relatively peaceful and respectful environment for the rest of the clients. If I need to bend the rules in some instances to achieve that, I do. Sometimes though, whooo you get pretty beaten down if you try to take a stand when you feel you're being taken advantage of in an inappropriate way that will just make things worse for you in the long run. Those are the times I was talking about in my original reply... It's like, "You win dude, here's your All Bran bar. Please go back to bed and stop screaming."

 

went back and don't see your point
first two points separated particular types of people/customers I even gave examples, I would't think that by the third I would still have to say 95% of THOSE customers or 5% of THOSE people

 

Sorry you don't see the point. That's the message you communicated, whether you meant to or not. I feel pretty certain that at least 7 folks that commented on the first page are going to agree with me about what you tried to say. I can list those folks if you'd like and we can see what they say.

If you look at what I quoted, it's perfectly clear that you were talking about 100% of customers. Even with your edits, you're still talking about 100% of customers.

 

Regardless, you come off sounding like an ass. You may not think you do, but you do. A number of people have pointed it out to you, so it's not just Jazz, or even me. You are giving off some seriously hostile vibes.

Without having met you, or having visited your store, all we have to go on is your words in this post. And from those words many of us have drawn, what I am guessing, is a sound conclusion.

I think you should find another job. I sympathize. I know I wasn't cut out for customer service.

 

Are we really gonna splinter off with a debate like this one?
Yes Jazz 95% plus 5% equal 100%
But I offered clarity that I didn't mean everyone but particular ones, even in light of the fact that I didn't agree with your assesmennt, You have that big a need to be right?
You and 7 others are going to tell me what i was trying to say? You can tell me what you understood me to say, but not what I I meant or tried to say.
come on, really? let it go

 

I don't have to be right. And I think that this portion of the discussion is important, mainly because I don't think you realize the message that you communicated with your first several posts. What I'm trying to tell you is that the message that you TRIED to communicate didn't get through. Whatever that message is, it's still not being communicated just because you inserted "THOSE" into the portion of text that I quoted. I'm trying to help you here, but I guess you're determined to see this as adversarial. If you read what's been posted today by me, Charlatan, Borla and Baraka_Guru, I think that you need to realize that your attempts to clarify your points have failed and that there are several people that continue to have the same impression of you from the first page - namely that most folks that read your posts would go out of their way to avoid shopping in your store. If you want to change that impression, a good first step would be to realize that I'm not trying to engage in any sort of contest with you - I'm trying to help you get your message across in a more effective manner. Because I've read what you've written - all the posts - and I see that you're struggling with what you're trying to communicate your idea - whatever it is - effectively. There seems to be a vast chasm between what you think you've said and what the rest of us think you've said. Maybe you need to address that chasm instead of thinking that I'm just trying to be an asshole. It's an easy conclusion I realize, but it's not actually the case.

 

OK let me offer you all some humility and clarity
You have asssumed that i hate my job, wrong, I love my job, my customers and the people I work with (leave it alone, that's a separate issue)'
perhaps my examples don't quite capture it but i am talking about a very very particular subset of customers, if I had to give it a number it would be well below 5%. And I am not angry with these people but frustrated sometimes that they find them selves more important than other customers, that their purchase regarddless of size entitles them to yell at my cashiers because my corporate office decided to not carry the brand of bran he likes most, that they offer disrespect in trade for absolute respect.
OK forget it describing another customer is only going to dig me in deeper

If by now you don't understand that I am not talking about everyone who shops with me then there's little i can do. If you do understand that and still have a need to argue, then it's not me with the problem. In fact forget about anyone who has posted in this thread you , your seven allies, even me

have someone who hasn't seen it read it from begining to end and If haven't made myself clear I will admit i was wrong

sorry, I tried but humility is difficult when you're right
--- merged: Aug 16, 2011 at 10:04 AM ---

that's not enough?
I thought I said this a bunch of times

Not every customer

 

issmmm, now I'm sorry I tried to help you. Apparently you think that I'm out to get you or something. I'm not. I'm trying to help. But you're convinced that you're right and I'm being a jerk. I'm sorry that you're upset, but I'm clearly not alone with my assessment of your attitude towards your customers.

 

Thanks for getting it Guru
that's what i was talking about
your customer wanted you to violate company policy and law in a way that could have cost you your job and 5k as well as potentiolly a 5k loss for the company or else she wouldn't come in and spend $5 ever again. She went over your head and your manager caved and gave her what she wanted just to keep her quite
I thought this thread was goingto be a fun little thread about the horrors of working in retail
but it seems that either I haven't been here long enough that some of you have difficulty understanding what i am saying or I haven't been here long enough to learn that I might be pushing someone's button and not knowing it
at any rate i am running out of steam debating the shape of clouds while the plane is in a nosedive

 

going back to read thread from first post to last
trust me I am trying to see what you tell me I said, I just don't and I can't conceed until i do
back in a while