The customer is always right. 
Heh, me too. Either District Manager or Secret Shopper. I find the split is more like 75/25 in favor of the NoA/SoS.
Problem is, you don’t know what the *other *customers are complaining about - it may very well be that for everyone complaining about over-familiarity, three are complaining that they’re being ignored - even if the interaction is exactly the same.
And at the end of the day, it’s those DMs and Secret Shoppers. They’re the ones who want greater interaction and friendliness. Their input is the input that can dock pay raises and fire people who don’t play the game by their rules.
Thanks for posting on the Straight Dope today! Did you get to check out our other great fora while you visited us today? Y’all come back real soon, mmmm’kay?!
Retailers DO take note. Customers are surveyed, complaints are tallied, comments are not simply shrugged off. In order to survive in this retail economy you have to listen to customers and adapt. Changes occur frequently due to customer feedback.
That said, complaints about name use by the cashiers wouldn’t even make it into the top 50 of the complaints I hear. For every customer who hates it there is probably a customer who shops at the store because “even though they are a large chain they know my name.” The method of repeating a customer’s name at the register does help the cashier (who sees many of the same faces every week) to remember that customer and their specific needs/wants.
I’ve had plenty of customers say “Hi, Biotop” and I can’t remember who they are and if they just read my name off the nametag or if they are regular shoppers who will now be angry with me because I can’t remember who they are because I see literally thousands of faces every day.
So if it is really that annoying to hear your name, let folks know and sooner or later it will change…and then the one’s who like to hear their names will start complaining and the whole process will be repeated again.
The server has arthritis; the Moderator has arthritis; because that lets us sneer at the newbies; you fucking well can swear, it’s the Pit; 'cause if they banned everyone who used “Hi, Opal” they’d have about three members left; I’d be happy to be mean to them for you if you’d like; sorry about the smilies :(:(
but Corporate says they’ve got to offer them; to keep the Mod lounge well stocked with champagne and canapes; because otherise eye cin’t andarstund yiou; maybe not but the competition charges twice as much for funny titles so, really, you’re getting the same high quality for much less; and lastly, if you’ll just bend over for a moment I’d be more than happy to assist with the spoiler box insertion. What size were you thinking of? Extra large is half off this week, you know.
HOW WAS YOUR POSTING EXPERIENCE?? DID YOU FIND EVERYTHING YOU NEED?? THANKS AND COME BACK SOON!!!
Let’s cut the Gordian Knot even further - how about turning the greeters into more cashiers? What pisses me off more than any faux friendliness is long checkout lines that management doesn’t seem care about. More than once I’ve abandoned a full cart right in front of a friendly-as-hell greeter or knowledgeable floor walker because there weren’t enough cashiers.
Excuse me, El Kabong. You misunderstand.
(Jots down El Kabong’s name on a slip of paper)
I don’t really want to know why you do things here a certain way.
[increasing anger]I want you to know that you really should be doing them *the way I suggest *and I want you to acknowledge that.[/increasing anger]
[smirk] Please let me speak to your supervisor because you have a terrible attitude. [/smirk]
Sure thing. Would that be before or after the spoiler box insertion?
We were in one of those places once also. It was brutal! The music was so loud, I couldn’t hear myself think, and it turned out we were ready for our check just as the dance recital started. We had things to do and we were stuck till the performance was over and our server started doing her job again.
I’ve never been back, and I never intend to patronize that chain again.
Mach Tuck - *Amen *to more cashiers. Now, if only someone could perfect a detector that tells you to avoid a certain line because a customer in that line will need 4 price checks, 2 cartons of cigarettes that are kept at the customer service desk, and the order has to be divided in two, one paid with a check and the other with a gift card that doesn’t have a large enough balance. :smack: Meanwhile the rest of us stand there as our ice cream melts and drips on the floor… THAT’S when someone needs to come by and ask if I’ve found everything I need!
I think there’s a fine distinction that needs to be made here; corporate retailers don’t make decisions based on customer satisfaction, they make them based on sales. Period.
A-freaking-men.
Honestly, I don’t even know why they build 15 check-out lanes. If they don’t ever open them all (and I shop all different times and days, trust me when I say they NEVER open them all!), why not build the 3 or 4 they’ll actually use, and leave more room for sales displays? Or, even better, a few more self-checkouts. I love those things.
Bingo
OK, I have the answer. When you enter a store, you grab a reversible hat. The red side means “Just looking. I know what I want. Let me shop in peace.” The green side means “I need some assistance or information.” A feather on the cap means “Talk to me pleeeeeeeeease!!!”
Oh, wait - some folks are colorblind. So instead of red and green, we go solids and stripes. Problem solved. You’re welcome.
On the one hand, I agree with this. On the other hand, some people are still annoyed whether approached by a knowledgeable staff member or a greeter. I speak from the experience of annoying people daily with my quite extensive knowledge of our product and pleasant, helpful demeanor. I can’t win every time, so I just do my job the best I know how. Sorry if it rubs you the wrong way. You’ll live.
ETA: And, yeah, you’re right about the reason behind greeting and making frequent contact with customers. It seems to be effective means of reducing shrink from shoplifting and customers damaging goods while shopping. That’s good for everyone.
It also keeps the employees busy and out on the floor where the managers can see them. Instead of, say, in the break room shoving DVDs into their bookbag. “Friendliness” reduces *both *kinds of shrink - internal and external.
Plus, there’s a certain amount of “fake it 'till you feel it.” I started many a shift just feeling like a grumpasaurus, and the first few conversations *were *forced, until just acting happy made me *feel *happy midway into my shift. Maybe it was because I’d stumble into a conversation that actually turned interesting, or maybe it’s some neuromuscular effect of a faked smile, I don’t know. But it worked more often than not.
Happy employees are less likely to rob you blind, too.
They don’t care about long lines. Most people are not going to ditch the purchases they were going to make just because there’s a line. In fact, the line makes you strictly more likely to add those “cheap” items they put on stands on either side of the lines.
They herd U liek buying so they added buying to your buying so you can buy while you buy.
OK, I understand loss prevention. I can deal with the passing employee asking “Are you finding everything?” or “Can I help you?” when the shopper is staring at a display or looking lost.
So is it too much to ask that I not have to deal with a gauntlet of “How ya doin’??” when I walk thru the doors. Why not “Welcome to SuperMegaHappyStore!! Can I help you find something today?” because sometimes I do wonder which aisle has the headlight fluid. 
There has to be a happy medium somewhere.
I’m still waiting to find out where El Kabong inserts that spoiler box…
The faux courtesy bugs me, too. Always has but for years now I just breeze right along with usually a little wave and/or a nod or a wink, never breaking stride. I’ve worked a ton of retail in the past and know what’s up. Not long ago I had a problem with the self checkout scanner getting kerflunked. A harried lady came to my rescue and then proceeded to continue madly checking the other items in my basket as if I was just going to screw it up anyway so she’d rather do it herself. Talk about needing therapy in a few years, she needs it now! Poor thing.
Don’t know where that is. On a given busy day in our store, you’ll have at 2-3 people covering a department. If they are all doing their jobs and not already engaged with customers, they will each engage you (especially if they aren’t aware that you’ve already been engaged by their coworker). If you are there long enough, they will engage you again. If a supervisor sees me walk past a customer without acknowledging them verbally, it’s likely to be called to attention. Then I have to explain that I have already talked to them twice and I am most assuredly *not *ignoring our customers. At the very least, I try to make eye contact. If I’m on you like white on rice, you can assume I think you’re acting (or looking) like someone that requires extra attention, if you know what I mean.
Or its slow and we’re bored. Or maybe you were rude to a coworker and they’ve decided to give you the best customer service you’ve ever had, like if we were in Tiffany’s and you were Queen of England. 
It was 10 feet at Wally World. And then they’d give us hell for not doing whatever we were doing while we helped the customer. Seems to me that helping the customer ought to be a higher priority than fixing that table of shirts that I would have to fix six times in as many hours, but they didn’t see it that way.