In one ten minutes interaction I find that very excessive. Once is too much - twice is just creepy.
Are service workers usually required to use their real names on their nametags? I can’t think of any downside that would arise if they all used manager-approved fake names, and I imagine it would make the excessive name-using customers more bearable for the workers (but being a rather anti-social person who has never had a job like this, I could be wrong).
Pretty much, yeah. What happens is that you fill out the application, you go through the process, you’re told when and where to report, and you get handed your name tag, and your uniform (if any). And about the only thing that would irritate me more than being called my own name would be being called by a fake name.
I was told once by a customer service employee that they could always tell the “secret shoppers” because they would address them by name. For a while, my mum would do this to try to get better service (I don’t really know if it worked or not).
Maybe not entirely appropriate to this thread, but I thought it was interesting.
We aren’t given a choice about what name appears on our name tag, but I have assisted some of my co-workers in making fake name badges with the preferred diminutive of their name, and management hasn’t asked us to stop. We were all issued new style name badges at one point that had our full real names in small print down the bottom, and many employees objected. Later versions of the new style omitted our surnames, and nothing was said if we covered our surnames on the badges that had them (Liquid Paper ftw).
Etv, the rare cashier who appreciates your effort to use his name is vastly outnumbered by those who are vaguely, moderately or intensely annoyed that you did it, not once, but twice. Unless you’ve established a rapport with the person assisting you, rethink it. In a simple cashier/customer transaction where they ring your stuff up and you pay for it, it rarely feels appropriate. (The longer they assist you, the more acceptable it becomes - as I said, rapport).
Apart from a few regular customers, it would be weird.
Not quite as weird as the random regular at the place I used to work, who insisted on referring to my workmate as ‘Isaac’, at every possible opportunity, even though it was clearly not his name (and she actually knew his name), on the grounds that it was, in fact, her son’s name, and she thought they looked similar. Her son was also actually a regular, and no, they really didn’t even look alike.
On the other side of the coin, our local shop appears to be having a patronising name contest among the staff, so far, the worst have been: ‘My Darling’, ‘Sweetie’, ‘Princess’ and ‘My Little Customer’, to be said in a strong Indian accent for full effect. Though I’ve seen at least one of them using the same names for a middle aged male builder, which makes it a little more amusing.
As a customer, I don’t enjoy it. It’s an artificial familiarity that, for me, has the opposite of its intended effect: I feel uncomfortable rather than “special.”
When someone I don’t know has my credit card in their hand and addresses me by my name, what I hear is “nice name, Mr. Turnip. Be a real shame if something happened to it.”