I worked retail for years, starting as a cashier and working my way up to manager, and I always thought the best thing a boss could do for his/her staff is to stand up for them in cases where the customer is wrong. Or even when the customer is right, but being abusive to the employee. Yay for Herb Kelleher. Love that guy. It kills staff morale for management to always side with the customer, no matter what.
I find that I am a much better customer as a result of working retail. But on the other hand, I also have high expectations when it comes to customer service. I make it a point to report excellent service to managers, as well as poor service.
My daddy, who was a very good salesman for quite a number of years, always told me, “The customer is not always right; somtimes the customer is misinformed.”
For example, the customer in the OP may very well be operating on the erroneous assumption that he/she is not a douchy blow-hard ass-hat. From my perspective, it would be poor customer service to not correct that customer’s faulty viewpoint.
Honestly, I’m still taken aback by some of the responses so far.
NOTHING in the OP indicates that his customers have been abusive, unreasonable or otherwise deserving of some of the customer-bashing I’m seeing here. At this point, I’m sitting on the fence as to whether the problem is with the customer or with the OP or maybe just with the fact that this supermarket sells shitty bread… it’s a toss up unless the OP would like to come back here and enlighten us as to what their specific beef is.
I spent nearly 10 years in the service industry in various retail and CSR jobs. So yeah… I know abusive shitbag customers really do exist, and I’ve hung up on more than a few over the years (though always in keeping with the three-strikes rule my employer laid out for customers using obscene language). The other thing I know from experience is that for every irrational screaming customer, there are just as many obnoxious, unhelpful, and downright rude employees who don’t give a rat’s ass about doing their job right.
Yes, the customer isn’t always right. Doesn’t mean they’re always wrong, either.
the customer is always there.
I also vote for mandatory customer service, once I was putting on shoes after swimming on the way to burger place to eat and a few girls were walking in to start their shift and I overheard one say the same thing, it was funny hearing such insight from a 16yr old.
no for every asshat customer there is not an asshat employee not even close. it might be that for every great employee there is one asshat but customers out number both by a huge margin.
Well I’m sorry but I can see the complainants point.
110 dollars a night and you cant even be bothered to supply Cockroaches!
Well excuse ME !
You con people into staying at your hotel by telling them that its the cheapest in town,but then when you’ve got them through the door and they’re all comfy,THEN you spring it on them NO cockys.
And then no doubt its a case of well we CAN accomodate you on the beetle issue sir but its gonna cost you another fifty bucks a night !
Not much to elaborate on. He just had a shitty attitude from the outset. I think someone may have pissed him off and he was looking for someone to unload on. I do my job, I work hard, I don’t get paid enough to have people in my face taking out their problems on me. Was really grinds my gears is as employees we’re not allowed to talk back to the customer.
I don’t understand why the OP can’t just vent? Why does his “argument” have to be seen as valid or justified to X number of people here? He had a bad day at work–amazing. He had a bad customer who irritated him–and we all know none of us have ever had anything like that happen. Honestly–the OP was just blowing off some steam. What is the big deal?
I love the link to notalwaysright.com–wonderful.
It kinda surprises me when I read stuff like this, but then after I think about it, it doesn’t. America needs pissy, down-on-themselves retail workers too. We really like the ones who yell at customers, you know, because what do they have to gain by being nice? Will they get paid extra? No way, because the rich owners keep all the money!! (on the contrary, YES, they will – maybe not tomorrow, but they will).
I work for a consulting firm. Our chief product is willing deal with our customers’ crap even though it says something else on our contracts. You know, you get past a certain maturity level and awareness of the world where you understand that people lie; they’re mean, selfish and opportunistic. At work, this is 99% of the time and in the personal side of life, it’s a strong 75% (higher or slightly lower, depending on who you know). Once you come to this realization, you’re able to put on that smile and happily collect their money. They’re paying you a large premium for being shit heads. Collect it and forget about them.
My clients are usually HR departments. If anyone thinks dealing with these assholes is bad when you work for the same company, think of how they are when you’re a “vendor.” A little more pissy than a crotchety old lady complaining about the staleness of the bread to say the least. But you know what? They’re always right, because they pay me a LOT of money. I don’t care if they’re rude, stupid, and misplace their anger at me. I just smile and say little. I laugh when I get to bill them.
So Upset Retail-Working Dopers Who Hate Customers, every time you lash out or get angry at a customer (if you’re really angry, you don’t even have to say anything – people sense it), keep it up. You’re just giving the guy who can smile and take a little bullshit a few extra bucks, and hurting no one but yourselves.
Most retail-working Dopers probably don’t make much more than minimum wage, and couldn’t really be arsed HOW much some other wage-slave makes at some other almost identical retail outlet. If they make a sale they don’t get extra praise, and if they don’t sell they don’t get demoted (for the most part).
There’s an ad running for some damned toasted subs - shows some kids working at Generic Sandwich Shop Obviously Supposed To Be Subway, and they’re looking at a billboard advertising their competition’s sub, and the employees are going, “Should we be worried?” First time I saw the ad, I screamed, “BULLSHIT,* you’re crew member at a sandwich shop and I know from experience that none of you give a shit about the competition… unless they might trade off with you sometimes.”
I agree–it’s much easier to suck it up in the name of customer service when you get to bill the customer. When you make an hourly wage, it’s not quite the same. I also don’t buy the idea that most of these people will simply shop somewhere else, for a couple of reasons: First, I worked in a grocery store for seven years, and the loudest, most obonoxious complainers were back in every single week, despite our ‘awful customer service’–because we had the cheapest prices, and that’s what mattered.
Secondly, many of these people were the type that were NEVER going to be happy anywhere, because unless you were able to deliver the equivalent of toasted ice cubes, they were going to complain. So they may try another store, but they’ll be just as unhappy there.
I worked in the book department of a mall store for three long, hellish years.
My personal “Crappy Customer” was a woman who stood in the store aisle, watching me stack our New Arrivals. She finally decided she’d had enough of standing there waiting for me to Notice Her August Presence, so she started snapping her fingers at me. And shouting. Don’t forget the shouting.
<snap snap snap>
*YOU! YOU GIRL!!! YOU! *
<snap snap snap snap> HEY! I’M TALKIN TO YOU!
<snap snap>
At this point she got right up next to me, shoved a finger in my face and said, “HEY! DON’T YOU LISTEN? I’M TALKING TO YOU!”
I looked at her coolly and said, “Oh, did you want me? I’m not a dog*, I don’t jump when some jerk snaps their fingers at me, no matter how important they think they are. Try asking for my attention politely and I’ll think about helping you.”
She completely LOST IT. She started screaming at me that how dare I talk to her like that, nobody talked to her like that, and she was going to report me to my manager.
I shot back, “Go ahead. In fact, I suggest you report me to the STORE MANAGER. He’s standing right over there and saw the whole thing.”
Oddly enough, she declined to report me after all, and slunk out of the store. I have no idea why.
*Yes, I know, ironic in hindsight, considering my chosen-many-years-later username…
Sorry, I should’ve been clearer. She was walking by our department, stopped and saw the New Arrivals table and me stacking stuff, and started snapping right away.
There was no politeness involved. Shouting at me from the aisle isn’t polite.
And yes, I realize upon reading my post that the way I had it worded, it does appear that she stood for quite some time. She didn’t.
Snapping and shouting is obnoxious, but so is being ignored by store employees when you need help. If I were your manager I’d have fired you on the spot.
:dubious: