Concur. I wouldn’t have offered the card; I wouldn’t have sent the second email. She wanted the last word, that’s all.
“Thank you again for contacting us. I believe you’ll find what you’re looking for here.” <bit.ly link to a photo of the Goatse guy>
Gahhhhhhhh don’t blame unrelated policy on safety and security concerns. Staying open three minutes later isn’t a security risk by any stretch of the imagination.
Out of curiosity, have you ever had one of those people the owner speaks to continue to argue their case that it’s a stupid policy that should be changed? I just wonder because in all the times I’ve had clients go all up my ass about a policy they don’t like, whenever I explain I don’t make the rules but I can let them talk to the person who does, none of them have ever taken me up on the offer. Not a single one.
Sending out another e-mail which essentially says the exact same thing in more detail is not productive, and may be perceived as insulting. People are not generally mollified by hearing again why they’re not going to get what they want.
We wouldn’t have been staying open, we could have been closing and then unlocking the door for her to come in after closing time. That is absolutely 100% a security risk. Places can and have been robbed that way. What you have to understand is that once the door is locked there is money moving around from the registers to the safe by people that don’t typically handle that much money around customers (but it isn’t a problem to do it when the doors are locked). The ‘bad guys’ are well aware of this and all it takes is for them to find one store that will let them come in to just ‘get one thing’ and next thing you know they’re robbing the place.
Like I said, it’s happened before.
Honestly…I’m not sure. We get enough stupid calls and dumb customers that we don’t even share stories half the time. I think sometimes they just need to vent and once they get it out of their system they feel better and think a bit more rationally.
Sometimes, I like to call up* companies to bitch about things I know they can’t change. I don’t do it to get free stuff, nor do I expect them to change their policy just for me. I do it because there might be 9 other guys calling to tell them the same thing and they won’t change it unless they get 10 calls. It’s like voting or writing your congressman; you don’t expect it to do any good on it’s own, but maybe it’ll be the final straw, or make the next guy the final straw, or the guy after that.
When someone calls with a problem that can’t be rectified without a time machine, consider that maybe they’re just voting and hoping others do as well. After all, if this is the 20th call this week about being open until 7:15, don’t you think you’d change your hours?
*By “call”, I mean “intend to call”. I’m lazy.
It depends what kind of store it is? If you have competition, you always have to beat them. Otherwise people will go elsewhere if they have a choice. The thing is you can’t tell how much business you lose on things like these.
I worked at a store a long time in my college days, and we would have people standing waiting to get in. Why couldn’t the manager open the doors 15 minutes earlier. He gave hundreds of reasons why he couldn’t. Then he was fired, the next manager came in and if she saw more than one person waiting to get in, she’d open the store early.
There was no real reason not to accommodate people, the first manager didn’t want to be botherd. He was let go (not for this) but his attitude carried throughout. I can’t be bothered. I hope in his next job, he coudl be bothered otherwise, someone who doesn’t mind being bothered will take your job or your customers.
As others have said, there was nothing to be gained by sending the second email. If I could be so bold, I would say it was a very message board thing to do. The second email wasn’t getting things done, it was more like wanting to ensure that she knew all your arguments and would eventually agree with you. You wanted to “win” the argument internet style, laying out reasoned arguments and hoping she would respond in kind.
But business is not the internet. What was to be gained by repeating/rephrasing your arguments here? You think she didn’t already know why you close up at 7.00pm? You don’t need to win these arguments, you just need to resolve them to the companies satisfaction. Getting involved in back and forth discussions does not do that in the slightest.
Offering full service up until the moment of official closing is all that should be expected.
Conversely, when I once called a restaurant 22 minutes before closing time to place a carry-out order, and was told that they stop taking orders at quarter 'till closing time and therefore couldn’t help me… that was the last time I ever called them.
Yeah, if you start moving money around and opening safes while a customer is in the store, that’s a security risk. But that wasn’t the request. The request was to stay open 5 minutes more. There’s no real security risk in starting your closing procedure 5 minutes later.
Actually, it is. Both times, in a 15 yr long retail career, that I have been working in stores that have been held up, it happened after the posted closing time. There are several reasons why theives prefer this time. One was a customer that arrived shortly before closing and dwadled until they were the last customer. Another was let in to purchase just “one thing”.
- Fewer staff and customers in store
- Bank room/vault (where the tills are counted, deposit prepared)will be open and accesable
- Tills, bank room and vault will have the greatest amount of cash
- Parking lot is reletively free of cars (easier get away)
It IS a real and legitimate concern. I remember the police officer tell me at one of the incidents that nearly half of hold ups occur “just after closing”. No cite on that, however, sorry.
Aside from that it COSTS to keep a store open after posted times. Extra customer time requires staff to wait to finalize tills, serve customer, do clean up and etc. This generally means overtime expenses, as their shifts are timed to allow only the needed time for closing. Additionally, staff are people too. They need to be able to meet their outside of work schedules. Most day care centers charge heavily if you are late picking up a child, for instance, so a customer keeping the store open late has down stream effect.
Finally in response to the OP, you went above and beyond. Option one is fine, and you provided excellent after service to a customer.
Right, but the point is that it doesn’t matter if just after closing is 7:05 or 7:10. Those 5 minutes don’t make an appreciable difference.
Sir, I’m sorry but we’re closed. Please stop making nose-prints on the glass.
Then use your own time, since you don’t seem to care about it, and get there 5 minutes earlier.
Say you have four people closing - one of them starts the closing routine a little later, holds up the manager because the cash drawer isn’t counted out until fifteen minutes after it usually is, the night deposits are delayed a little, etc. If the four employees have to all leave together (a frequently used precaution), you’ve added a man-hour to your payroll and you’ve made a customer think that she can come in and do the same thing anytime she wants.
The extra few dollars in hourly pay isn’t much, sure… but it’s not worth it to keep a problem customer.
Yes and no. Yes, you’re right, it doesn’t matter if ‘just after closing’ is 7:05 or 7:10. What does matter is that 7 is closing time, any time after that is ‘(just) after closing.’ How does my crew know if that person calling and asking us to stay open longer (or unlock the door) is going to rob them when they get there and just wanted to make sure the door would be open. Sure, it’s a remote possibility, but so are a lot of other things we protect ourselves against.
Also, it should be noted that this is a small mom and pop style place. So there’s typically 3-4 people here at closing time.
I didn’t want to mention it earlier, and security truly is the main reason, but in a close second is that my crew has been there 8 hours (sometimes as long as 12) and they really want to go home. Sitting there watching a customer decide between Kiwi Strawberry or Diet Green Tea Snapple for 5 minutes after closing (assuming they got there before closing) really sucks.
I wouldn’t have sent the second email. You answered it, it’s done. As far as staying open five more minutes.
It never is just five more minutes.
All I said was don’t use security as an excuse for unrelated policies.
2:)
maybe your manager just didn’t want to be bothered, not knowing the guy, i wouldn’t know. but i agree with not letting people in before opening time, simply because it doesn’t matter what time the store opens. open up 15 minutes earlier, people will start lining up 20 minutes earlier. open up 20 minutes earlier, people start lining up 30 minutes early. etc etc etc. store hours are made for a reason, there’s no reason not to stick to them just because people have nothing better to do than sit in a darkened parking lot waiting for a store to open.
as for the situation in the OP, the first response was already above and beyond, the second unnecessary. and yeah, there’s no way it would’ve been only 5 extra minutes of the store’s time. the customer was on the phone saying they’ll be there in 5, which in customer time means 10 by the time they get out the door and get there, then there’s the time spent in the store, even if she stuck to her word and ran in and out, “5 more minutes” could easily turn into 15-30.