You must not have learned much about customer service in the “many years” you’ve been working in it if you think it is even remotely acceptable to snicker at a potential client. I don’t care if they’re wearing an Elvis costume and a pair of bright pink panties over the top of their tinfoil hat and demanding you sell them a Trimblyworbler, you DO NOT make any sort of derogatory comment, expression, or gesture to a customer. EVER. Doing so has been a discipline-worthy offense in every store, restaurant, or clinic where I’ve ever worked. (You can, of course, be as derogatory as you like in the privacy of the break room after the customer has gone.)
Yeah, it’s obnoxious to have to spend your days answering the same questions over and over and over for people who appear too broke to afford what they’re asking about. I know, I work at vet clinic front desk–on days I work I answer about 475 million calls from people wanting price quotes on vaccine visits and spay/neuters, who then decline to schedule at this time. We never hear from about 95% of them ever again. But that 5% includes some folks who can and will pay for anything for their pet given a good time in their schedule to have it done. We also get a surprising number of new clients coming in who say they were referred to us by friends or neighbors who couldn’t afford to bring their pets in but were impressed by how much nicer we were on the phone than the other clinic in town. Then there’s the people who couldn’t afford to come to us at the time of the initial contact, but become very lucrative clients when their financial situation improves.
You see, when you’re a dismissive asshat because you think someone can’t afford you and customers go somewhere else to spend their money, there is exactly one party involved who loses–and it’s not the customer or the competitor. The customer wins, because his shopping needs were met elsewhere, and he has a place where he feels confident returning because they treated him well. The competitor wins, because his cash register is that much fuller at the end of the day and he’s just gained a repeat customer who will tell everyone how great he is. You…you don’t win. You lose a sale today, and other sales from the same customer in the future, and the sales from all the people this person tells about what a dismissive asshat you are. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by going the Colonel Pickering route and treating a flower girl like a duchess.
I don’t know if I learned much or not or was any good or not, I only know that my perceptions changed over the years. Actually, I’m not sure what the personal insult is about as we are not in the barbecue pit, or what purpose it has in this conversation.
I am not sure exactly what the second part of your comment has to do with the comment I made; in the story I am talking about, the guy did by the car from the salesman so in regards to this situation your comment does not apply. I agree that snickering and treating customers with anything other than the utmost respect is not good. I would always make the assumption that anyone walking in the door could have the means to easily buy any item; you never could tell from appearances who could just come in and buy something for $2000 cash.
But the point I’m making is much more subtle; and, admittedly, perhaps it got lost in the verboseness of my prose. I’ll recap the story a bit - guy’s friend is tired of being picked on for how he looks/dresses, saves all his money for a fancy car, finally saves all the money, proceeds to go to the dealership expecting a certain reaction based upon the obvious difference in his profile from what one would expect from a fancy car customer. and the proceeds to pay for a very high ticket item in one dollar bills. I’m not saying the sales manager couldn’t have done better in the situation, but it doesn’t automatically mean he was an asshat either. It seems very obvious from this description that the buyer had every intention of goading the sales manager, especially the fact that he had to go out of his way to set up special arrangements to pay with one dollar bills. So, some guy is picked on a lot in his life and the minute he gets a small amount of power by having a large amount of money he chooses to wield it in such a way; that is what I find sad.
I could be completely wrong about this, and I welcome differences of opinion - especially in regards to the reasoning behind paying in one dollar bills. But please no personal insults, if I wanted that I would go to the pit.
It was meant as the general you, not the specific you. I apologize for not making that clear. I generally try to make sure I specify that, but I was trying to type and watch the clock at the same time this morning and apparently wasn’t paying close enough attention. Sorry.
And yeah, the sales manager in that story was a dismissive asshat. I can’t summon even the tiniest shred of sympathy for him. None whatsoever. I would have walked the hell out of there and found another dealership if it were me, but it wasn’t me, I don’t know how far away the next nearest dealership was, and besides there’s zero guarantee any other dealership would have treated him any better. Back in those days, being outright rude and shitty to people who were different from you was much more socially accepted and thus much more common–common enough that not just the kid, but the bank manager fully expected this kid to get treated badly enough to merit this stunt.
Confirmation bias cuts both ways, though - people don’t remember all the times they were in a big-ticket items store dressed pretty casually with no intention to purchase (because they couldn’t afford anything/were just wastime time waiting for the bus or something like that) when the staff ignored them for not appearing to have enough money.
Look at it this way: Imagine you’re a computer salesman. The store is packed with people, there’s not enough staff, and you’ve got two customers next up who are looking at mid-high end laptop computers. One of them is clean-cut and wearing a suit (but no tie). The other is wearing a dirty T-shirt for a beer brand, trackpants, and jandals (flip-flops). You can only serve one person and they both arrived at the same time. Which one are you going to serve first?
I would :dubious: anyone who said “the guy in the beer T-shirt and trackpants” and would further suggest that they hadn’t worked in retail for any appreciable length of time and/or were only making that response in the interests of being contrary or trying to win a non-existent game of I Am More Open-Minded And Non-Judgemental Than You.
Did I mention anywhere that my friend was highly offended? No. He enjoyed looking anti-establishment for the reaction it would get. He pranked the dealership in a fairly small way. After all, he didn’t waste anyone’s time by stopping by every week to moan that “he sure wanted that car” and “could I take it for a test drive” or any such thing beforehand. He waited until he had the money to get what he wanted before approaching the dealer. The deal itself was actually done quickly because the bank manager was right there to attest to the adequacy of the funds.
My friend is now in upper-management in an unnamed firm where he uses his misdirecting skills to do the same type of thing. He is very satisfied with his life. But he recognizes that that particular experience gave him the taste for what he now does professionally and he loves his work.
It’s a great story without giving you this background. You just read something into it that wasn’t there.
He didn’t get actually get poor service because he set up the prank ahead of time. Had he not done as he did, he knew he would expect poor service. So he planned carefully.
I don’t think that we are really in much disagreement; admittedly my tone in the response is a bit emphatic, but I’ll elaborate on the point I’m trying to make.
I did not specifically say that your friend was offended, I was trying to point out that your friend was looking for the situation to play out that way, and that the salesman was not some evil person. I do not agree that I was reading anything into the story that was not there though. You say nothing flattering about the salesman and describing him as snickering among other descriptions. I do not think anyone hearing this story as originally told would think that the sales manager is being portrayed in a flattering light, for example crazy cat lady comes away with the impression that the sales manager was an asshat and an awful person. As I said in my last past your friend was just goading the salesman to get a reaction and I pointed out that the salesman did make the sale. My main point in all my commentary was that the sales manager is not some awful evil person in this situation, which is basically what you’re saying here. When you make the clarifications you make here, and state that the friend was not offended and did not receive bad service then the story takes on a much different tone. And after all, since this thread is about horribly bad customer service, there is really no reason the story as originally would lead one to believe that the sales manager is meant to be a sympathetic character.
No, that part was meant to be the specific you, and it wasn’t an insult to you as a person–it was a commentary on your implied appeal to authority based on your “many years in customer service.” You were implying that your expertise in the field ought to lend weight to your argument that the sales manager was treated poorly and carnut’s friend was being a power-hungry little jerk. But the only way to paint the sales manager as a victim is to claim that his treatment of the customer in question was acceptable. And it wasn’t acceptable, not even remotely. It was 10,000% Not Okay, and the knowledge that it’s Not Okay is Customer Service 101.
It’s my opinion based on my many years of customer service that the sales manager was being an utterly unprofessional bag of dicks and richly deserved what he got.
I walk out at least a couple of times a year, but I seldom get angry. I look for something, I can’t find it, I look for help, I can’t find it, I walk out. True, the business goes to the bottom of my list, and I live in an area with a lot of options, but there is usually very little stress and anger about it.
I tend to pre-shop a lot; invariably those are the times the sales force trip over themselves to get to me. I’m very direct, I tell them I’m not buying; I assure them they can leave me for a ‘real’ customer if one comes in. I even point out other people who look like they are waiting for help.
Probably the worst experience was with a car salesman. I needed a car, I had some nice money, and I wanted a Toyota. Unfortunately for the salesman, it was February in New England and I was working a lot on my house; between the mud-splattered coat and the broken nails, I did not look like a hot prospect.
The man would not show me a car. He kept insisting he needed to know that I could afford it. We wasted half an hour of each others’ time, and to this day I have never purchased a Toyota. To this day, he probably remembers me as a scruffy person who wasted his time, and would still not believe I could have bought the most expensive car on his lot, and he could have talked me into financing it, too.
So, no, sales people have no real sense of who will and who will not make a purchase.
Last time I went car shopping (last August or so), I told each salesperson right up front what price range I was looking in. With that, they could show me to exactly the used car(s) (if any) they had in that range. And presumably, since I mentioned a specific price range, they could take in “on faith” that I was really prepared to shell out that much.
I have never worked retail sales, but I know as a customer, I would appreciate the salesperson at least acknowledging my existence for starters.
The times I’ve been ignored, I was not in dirty clothes. Of course any woman at or past middle age often is invisible, despite the fact that we are quite likely to have more money than the 20-something who gets the attention.
Of course. I don’t think anyone is suggesting sales staff should act to the contrary. But I also note you’re not disputing my assertion, either (ie you’d serve the person in a suit first).
That’s not a complaint I’ve heard before, but I think it depends what sort of retail industry we’re talking about. For example, I was in electronics retail, so being female and/or middle aged wasn’t a reason to think the customer would be tyre-kicking or otherwise not likely to make a purchase.
I could understand this attitude in, say, the 1950s when people dressed up more to go out.*
Since casual dress has been the norm for a very long time, it strikes me as bizarrely anachronistic for salespeople to make judgments about who is deserving of service based on attire. As for grooming, if you’re covered in filth and reek like a barn, that’s one thing - but being perfectly coiffed/shaven/trimmed should not be a qualification for buying a car.
If the dealership wants to stay in business, that is.
As someone who works in customer service (not anything fancy like cars or designer clothes though) I treat every customer the same regardless of what they look like. Mainly because it’s my job to be polite and friendly, but I would never assume that somebody doesn’t have money because they’re dressed like a slob. Looking grungy/ extremely casual seems to be the look these days and I certainly don’t dress up myself, aside from attending to basic hygiene, so it would be stupid of me to judge somebody else for that. And even if I suspect somebody might be homeless, how can I assume that they haven’t come up with the money to make a small purchase? And my assumption that they are homeless could be wrong anyway.
ETA: We have had random homeless people who were pretty obviously homeless come into the store on occasion which is why I mentioned that. Anyone who’s disruptive is asked to leave, but I would never kick someone out who is polite and can actually pay despite whatever their situation appears to be.
Aside from that, the only time I actually walked out of a place was when the staff at a tiny grocery store allowed a woman to cut in front of me. I was in line, she was behind me and a cashier said “next” then answered a phone call and indicated that she was not available after all, so I went back in line to wait until she a) finished or b) someone else was open. The staff let the woman behind me to go first on the premise that “I stepped out of line.” When I tried to explain, the woman snapped “I NEED TO MAKE MY PURCHASE” so I said, “Well, I don’t”, set down the protein shake I was going to purchase and bought the same thing at a convenience store down the street. Haven’t been back.
You’ve obviously never been a middle-aged woman! It happens all the time. I’ve learned to be assertive and to approach the salesperson if I have a question. On occasion I’ve gotten a slightly startled response, as if I somehow just appeared out of the air.
It’s not just that I’ve never been a middle-aged woman, it’s that I’ve never heard that complaint from anybody before - even the Women Of A Certain Age whom I am acquainted with.
I’m not saying it never happens, or it never happens to you, just that I’ve never heard of the phenomena before.
Okay, I can probably help you with this one. I’ve sold fine jewelry at a couple of places, and the rules are different. You can’t leave the jewelry department.
What I could do was call a manager and say someone needed help in watches. But I couldn’t leave the counter.
At the jewelry counter I was also not supposed to ring up stuff people brought from other departments, on the theory that while we were doing that someone would need help buying some fine jewelry and would have to wait because I was tied up and nobody else could come behind the jewelry counter to help them. But actually I and most of the other jewelry people would do it if the stuff didn’t have security sensors.
The other rule of the jewelry department was that you could only wait on one customer at a time and only show them one item at a time, although you could take two out of the case, as long as you, the salesperson, were holding one of them. So people could only try on one earring. Yeah, I don’t know why you’d need to try them both on, but anyway, you couldn’t. So while Customer A is standing there trying to decide between this bracelet or that one, Customer B is getting all antsy, and does Customer A even care? No. In fact she revels in it. Then she ends up buying nothing and now Customer B has gone off to some other jewelry store where people will wait on her.
One day when a lot of people were waiting I actually told a customer, “Okay, you have to either buy that or give it back. Right now!” To my amazement, she bought it.
And whenever someone asked to see “the most expensive item in the case” we had to call security. Not depending on whether they looked like they could afford it, but because security thought that question was kind of a red flag. In my experience it was more generally a drug dealer with lotsa cash there to impress his lady with how he could buy her the most expensive thing in the case. We were supposed to call security quietly but let’s face it, saying “Sure, I can show you that, just let me make one discreet phone call first,” what are they gonna think?
Huh. It’s a well-known fact, and pops up in pop culture a fair amount. There’s a wonderful description in The Summer before the Dark.
It’s wonderfully liberating, once you get used to it. But, if you expect to need help from a sales clerk, I would advice wearing a large loose coat and carrying an open tote bag.
I consider myself reasonably au fait with pop culture but I’ve never encountered that particular aspect before. Might be a US cultural/regional thing? Like I said, I’ve never heard anyone mention it here in Australia (although I’m sure it does happen sometimes). I’m also not familiar with the work you mention, FWIW.