The smile, like penance, only works if it is genuine. Otherwise go straight back to kowtow.
The problem with that strategy is that you need to get customers in the door before you can smile at them.
It was even worse. About 20 years ago, Safeway checkers and baggers around here were required to thank you personally with your first name, which they didn’t even know most of the time. So they were put in the awkward situation of having to ask your name, so they could thank you “personally.”
I am totally with @OldOlds on this! It was the definition of “false intimacy” and I would just clench my teeth and smile and say “no, that’s OK. Bye.” I don’t know what corporate genius thought this up but I was repulsed, and sympathized with the poor employees.
“Thanks, chum/doll.” See? I solved the issue.
Let’s rearrange these deck chairs-- I think that will help morale!
But…the deck is too slanty-- they won’t stay in place…
That for me is textbook Aldi, but I suppose it can be a brand-agnostic policy.
Textbook Home Depot and/or Lowe’s for me.
Right up the road from my office is a restaurant called La La Land.
La La Land Kind Café – La La Land Kind Cafe
They’re good, and pretty popular in the mornings. But the first time I went they really drilled into the “Kind Cafe” idea and forced their employees to say “I love you” to all of the customers. I’m a live and let live kind of guy but that was a bit too far for me. Fortunately, that policy didn’t last long.
Well put.
“Welcome to Costco. I love you. … Welcome to Costco. I love you …”
It’s all happening.
I sometimes wonder of I’m an annoyingly cheerful patron.
“Would you like to supersize that?”
“No, but it’s kind of you to ask.”
I came in to say, the 10-foot rule at Home Depot is “if a customer approaches to within 10 feet, turn your back on them and strike up a conversation with another employee.”
[Moderating]
I get a warning about that site not being secure when I click the link, so I’ve broken it just to be on the safe side.
[/Moderating]
‘TYFSAK.’
‘Thank you for shopping at Kmart.’
But the poor employee already feels bad enough. They aren’t doing this by choice, it’s a job requirement.
For myself, I just didn’t care to participate and wanted to get out as fast a possible.
I did that at Toys R Us as far back as 1995. It’s Retail 101. It’s one of the core foundations of customer service. I’m pretty sure I was specifically taught the “10 foot rule” though I was more subjective about it.
Hell, I still do it in IT. It’s one reason why I have a very successful career for decades.
.I don’t see a problem with it, it’s how things have worked longer than any of us have been alive.
Now, if you have “smile monitors” following you around like some dystopian nightmare threatening to fire you, that’s different. But smiling at customers is a basic thing everyone in the service industry does and is taught to do.
I was guessing it’s the occasional ‘secret shopper’.
I’m not your chum, mate!
@DrStrangeLove and @Dr.StrangeLove are 2 different members.
Settle down, toots.