Regional differences in salesclerk attitudes?

I live near Chicago, and one thing that regularly irritates me is how often store employees treat customers as annoyances. With irritating frequency clerks fail to make eye contact or speak clearly, decline to provide more than the bare minimum info to get rid of you, express complete ignorance of their stock and evidence no desire in satisfying a customer, or even conduct personal telephone calls or chat with co-workers instead of acknowledging a waiting customer.

I have gotten so that I expect lousy service when shopping, and am surprised and pleased when I receive anything approaching decent service.

We just returned from a trip to Memphis, New Orleans and Fla, and were stricken by the different attitude we perceived on behalf of store employees south of Chi. People in gas stations appeared to actually want to help us out when we asked questions, and they looked us in the eye when talking to us. Sales clerks actually seemed to know something about their and their competitors’ merchandise. And we experienced this both in “touristy” places at our destinations as well as “holes-in-the-wall” along the route.

Wondering if any of you had any thoughts on this phenomenom. Is it real, or was I simply transferring my Hurricane-induced good mood? Are people more polite in different regions, or is in-store service universally horrible? Tho I comment on Chicago rudeness, I have heard New Yorkers comment on how friendly folk are in the midwest.

It always strikes me as sorta odd that I hear of the US moving towards a “service” economy, and I so regularly encounter such crappy service!

Interesting post, and I don’t really have any theories to add (save the cliches about Southern Hospitality and all…). I just wanted to share that in some circles, snooty service (or lack thereof) actually attracts customers… The logic seems to be that if they can be rude to customers, their service must REALLY be in demand (so they can afford to lose customers)…

No kidding. I’ve seen it happen, seen people chose one among several providers of the same service (say, catering) based on the fact that the “chosen one” had a rude phone presence.:confused:

I think it’s a hangover of the boom-time dot com economy. At one point it seemed, if you were breathing and hadn’t killed too many people or raped too many little boys, you were hired. Lower wage jobs were (are?) impossible to fill, and the quality of people hired was very very bad. It’s also a social trend, where bad manners seem to be the norm.

Personally, if people are rude or unknowledgeable, at the minimum I hang up or leave, and follow up with a call to the manager.

I live in Texas and seldom frequent the malls but I have experienced the gamut in retail service. As I’m both ancient and assertive, I have devised a little technique for shaming store employees that

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I take a white kleenex outof my backpack, wave it frantically over my head, and state loudly and clearly “I surrender, I surrender! Now can I get some one to wait on me?”
So far it’s worked like a charm.

The five boroughs of NYC and Nassau County, Long Island have terrible service in most establishments I’ve entered. I’ve had clerks order me to pick up change they’ve dropped in Duane Reade. I’ve been ignored. When I’ve sighed a little while waiting, I’ve had clerks laugh and loudly tell each other that I would just have to wait longer now. It’s not like I said anything to them or started yelling for a manager.

I now live in Rhode Island and generally get efficient and friendly service except at the McDonalds across from Home Depot in Seekonk, MA. They’re friendly there, but stupid.

Okay, I think I can safely admit it here, among friends…I am a retail clerk. In Cleveland. In a mall that is also a (slight, very slight) tourist attraction. Downtown. With a Rapid Transit stop in the basement and two luxury hotels upstairs. Therefore, we get customers from every walk of life and every nationality. I have waited on homeless women and the second wives of sheiks in the same day. Most of my customers work downtown and shop on their lunch hour. Just as there is no one type of customer, there is not one type of clerk.

For example, once a month or so I have to walk around to every store in the mall passing out coupons. Some clerks are friendly and easy to talk to…Godiva, Papyrus, Disney, Things Remembered, Browns Town, American Greetings, Victoria’s Secret are a few that stand out. Others treat even their own kind (me!) with a degree of contempt…J.Crew, Abercrombie, Gap, Lerners, Taco Bell, Payless, are just a few.

A lot of it has to do with age…there are very few clerks under 25 who put out any effort. They are just there to get their money and go home, and they have nothing invested in providing great service. Most clerks over 35 are there because they need the job, they like the job, they are doing this for a living and have an emotional and financial investment in providing the best service they can.

I know that is simplistic, but it generally breaks down that way. Now I always try to give great service because that’s the only way I can be. Gotta live with myself, and the crew I work with all have the same philosophy. We know our sales increase when we develop a rapport…but then I work in a very customer-interaction-intensive business…no one just grabs what they want and comes to the register in this store.

So who gets lousy service from me? People wearing headphones. People talking on cell phones. People who shout “excuse me!!!” at me from across the store when I’m working with another customer. People who pick up items, turn them over to look at the price and then ask me “how much is this”. People who try to rush me through a sale…fidgeting, grabbing items out of my hand, acting generally like they are in the most incredible hurry and I should just give it to them for free because the register is taking way too long and the bag won’t open and they have to be back at the office RIGHT NOW and why do you need to check my ID I never sign the back of my card and I shop here all the time and I spend a lot of money here and I’m friends with your president…yikes!

Oh yeah…and people who resent me trying to sell to them, If you come in my store, I’m REQUIRED to try to sell something to you. I’m REQUIRED to tell you about our current promotion. I’m REQUIRED to ask you questions about who you are shopping for, and I’m REQUIRED to approach you again, even if you say you are just looking. I’m here to sell…not forcibly, not aggressively…but we’re not a museum, or a library, we’re a store. We sell things. Don’t be offended if I try to get you to buy.

My experience has been that there are regional differences in sales clerks attitudes. But I think the biggest factors are (in no particular order):

  1. Am I going to come back in again? When I go to a place that has a lot of customer turnover, the clerks are more likely to be rude. If they don’t plan on seeing me again, what do they care? (Also known as the “Why I don’t shop at Home Depot” theory.)

  2. Who are you (the customer)? Pretty girls/boys get lots of help.

  3. Some clerks are just jerks.

  4. The local culture - are people rude? I’ve been ignored more in big cities, though rarely treated rudely.

I do think that the larger the city/customer base, the more likely clerks are to be rude. But I’ve had great experiences in large cities, and very few bad experiences in small towns.

I do think the biggest factors are the clerks personality, the amount of business they have and who you look like.

But there is never an excuse for rudeness, and I’ve believed that on both sides of the till.

Whistlepig

I’m an American in Germany and even the Germans admit that their service sector is just plain terrible. I sometimes think all sales people are taught that “the customers are always wrong”. What bothers me more than the lack of friendly service though, is the common hatred for American service. I’ve heard countless people tell me their trip to the U.S. was OK, except for all the “fake” sales people. My own boyfriend flipped out when we were shopping and a clerk asked us how we were doing today. His argument - the clerk couldn’t care less, so she shouldn’t ask. It is a bigger cultural difference than I could ever have guessed.

In any case, I’ll be vacationing soon in good ole’ South Carolina. I just adore the “How ya’ll doin’?” I’ll be getting. When they hear I’m a Yank, typically they even become friendlier. I guess it is because I appreciate the service in the South and people can pick up on things like that quickly.

I admit that I used to work in retail and ::shudder:: even worse, customer service for several different companies, including upscale, mall, you name it. I too have noticed that most really rude associates are the younger ones, although that is not always true. In short, you can tell which ones are there to make a buck and which ones are there b/c they like the job. But for me, I always tried to be nice, but for those who have never worked retail, it is one of the hardest jobs I think just because you are forced to fawn over everyone that comes in the door no matter how blatently rude they are to you. It only took one horrible customer, yelling and swearing at me for no reason other then to be a jerk, to ruin my whole day and I admit that was probably taken out on other customers.

On the other hand, I know from experience that you can get a salesperson / customer service person to do a whole lot for you just by being a little nice, smiling back at them and answering “good, how are YOU” when greeted. I personally (and I know of others) would bend over backwards to help a sincere customer who needed help but wasn’t demanding about it. As unfair as it sounds, people in retail / cust service are in the position to help / not help those whom they choose, and can often give out “perks” to the people they like. So to all customers out there who come into a store with an attitude, it doesn’t help.

But by all means, if you are just plain treated rudely by a salesperson, tell their manager…but be reasonable. Most managers will not fire someone “on the spot” if they just were too busy to help you as fast as you wanted. And by the way, soemtimes it is just a lack of training. I once got hired and put out on the floor with 2 minutes of instruction, I couldn’t help anyone if I tried! Hello…if you don’t train me about your product how can I sell it?

I could go on and on about horrible customer stories of abuse but this post is long enough. Just glad to say I am no longer in the business. I have sympathy and respect for all the good ones out there who are.

The store I work at (in the deep south) is art and custom picture framing – I’m in the custom picture framing part (I design it, and make it). I don’t actually go to the counter unless one of the other sales people needs help or they are extremely shorthanded, but when I do I do my best to provide service. Since we’re often talking to a customer for 20-minutes to an hour, it’s a more personal level of interaction. I am very proud of my service level (and ability to find things people like for their homes)… that being said, I will walk away from or have words with a customer if they are rude or insulting. This is very, very rare though. That being said…

This has got to be one of the rudest, most inconsiderate things someone can do. There is nothing more infuriating than waiting on some snotty business fellow who takes calls every five seconds while trying to talk to me, the lowly “sales clerk.” I had one of these guys com in tonight…he walked off so I couldn’t hear his conversation, so I left and told the manager to call me back when he was done. I’m not wasting my time on that crap; I have stuff to do and customers who actually appreciate me to do things for.

Then when he finished, he tried to argue with me and tell me to do something I explained three times was physically impossible. I hate that! Listen, Mister… I am the framer, I do this 40 hours a week, not you… if you know so much, then do it yourself. :mad:

Mr and I run a bike/motorbike shop with his parents. The ONE thing which annoys me is when a customer asks for a discount, we give them a token one and they demand more!

HEY! We are trying to make a living here! Its fine to ask for a discount, but if you are denied/given just a small one, there is OBVIOUSLY a reason. There’s no point in going on about it…“I always buy my family’s bikes here”…“I’ve been a customer for 15 years”…“I’m good friends with your father”…none of those reasons cut it, I’m afraid.

Oh, and the other thing is when a customer flat out IGNORES me because I’m not Japanese. I will say “Welcome, can I help you” IN JAPANESE and they will walk past me like I’m not there! Its all I can do to stop myself from standing in front of them, looking them in the eye and saying “Can you see me NOW?”

Being behind the counter sure gives you a better appreciation of what other clerks may be going through. But it also teaches you how to treat those clerks when YOU are a customer.