The decline of Customer Service

The BBQ Pit
1

So, I’m in line at the grocery store, just picking up a few things I happen to need. There are three lines open; I pick the shortest (I usually do). Some lady calls over the store PA at least three times for “Customer Service in the front” before someone finally wanders out to a checkstand to open an additional register.

So, the one they open is the express lane (15 items or less, Cash Only, No checks). I’m paying with my Visa debit card. Can I use this lane? Unsure, I stay in the lane I’m already in.

The family in front of me appears to be of Hispanic origin. Two women, perhaps mother and daughter, perhaps sisters, how would I know? Two Children From Hell, apparently birthed from the one they are calling “mami”. The Spawn are crawling up and over and under and through their empty cart. Finally, as the cashier completes their order, the non-mother female in this group asks the tiny Spawn-lets if they want chocolate. The midget Spawns shriek in anticipation of their sugary treat. The mother figure in the group demurs, saying something in what must be Spanish. The non-mother thing pooh-poohs the mother and gestures towards the Spawnettes to continue choosing their treat, said choosing consisting solely of four little grimy hands raping and pillaging the candy bar rack. Such devastation, I swear, you haven’t seen since the fall of the Roman Empire.

Finally, the heathens finish selecting their snackette and literally THROW the candy bars at the cashier, who, to her credit, catches them nimbly as though this happens all the time. The Irritating-Hispanic family finishes by paying, and merrily saunters away, the mini-spawn munching happily.

Finally, yes, it’s my turn to be pushed through the millworks of the conveyor belt to negotiate the vending of my sundries.

Ah, but, no!

Somehow, the cashier has found a candy bar with a dollar bill attached. Seizing this opportunity, she processses a cow-orkers transaction so that the cow-orker may experience a brief yet ultimately fulfilling sugar high. Of course, there was no indication as to the ownership of this candy bar (not to mention the resultant change) so My Friendly Cashier holds the confection aloft, asking each fellow employee in turn if this was theirs.

At last, the culprit is located. This young worker (who cannot be out of high school yet) rushes over to reclaim her candy bar and her change and promptly starts a conversation with MY CASHIER as to where some guy (who apparently had been a previous customer) had gone. Please note that My Friendly Cashier has not so much uttered a grunt toward me; nor has she yet made any eye contact. This would seem quite the feat, as I’m standing there, directly in front of her, waiting patiently (so far) for her to begin processing my order. I clear my throat. Quietly.

The candy-bar-purchasing employee, having gotten her chocolate AND her information, turned her attention to the female employee who would be placing my purchases in my bags, IF they ever got scanned by My Friendly Cashier. The two not-quite-giggling-but-almost girls begin talking about last night’s activities. Until I clear my throat, a bit louder this time.

A fourth employee has sidled up to My Cashier as I was clearing my throat at the baggers, and proceeds to interrupt my transaction further by insisting that another customer’s lottery ticket be checked. Being the eternally patient person that I am, I silently wait for the lottery ticket’s information to cascade through the machine, all the while noticing that My Cashier still hasn’t made eye contact with me.

The lottery ticket is a winner. Five dollars. My Cashier (mine, not yours, dammit!) opens her drawer, produces a five-dollar bill and hands it to the lottery ticket lady.

Oh frabjous day! It’s finally my turn.

My Cashier made eye contact with me. Her eyes were hollow and tired. She wished for nothing more than to be somewhere else.

My Cashier then proceeded to scan all my items. The only words she said to me were to impart the amount of my total. I paid with my debit card, and she wordlessly handed me my receipt.

Is it too much to ask that service providers actually pay attention to me?

2

Somewhere like MPSIMS?

3

I have, on more than one occasion, walked away from such a scene, leaving my groceries on the belt unpurchased and unscanned, and stopped to inform a manager why I was leaving. Stores that can’t bother to train their employees in the basics of customer service are undeserving of my money.

4

People have repeatedly shown that they want lower prices more than good customer service. Thus, your major chains tend to suck in this regard. That is why I tend to go to the newer chains that are puching the opposite mentality. Exceptional service and exceptional products. Wegman’s (a supermarket in the Northeast that has grown as far south as Philly) is a great example of this. Ask about an odd product that the employee has not heard of and they do not say they haven’t heard of it, they do not refer you to someone else, they themselves track down everyone else who might know until they find you an answer. Really a refreshing change.

5

A lot of those chain stores treat their employees like shit. It’s hard to be perky and friendly when you’ve just been pointedly reminded that you’re worth less than dirt to the company, instantly replacable and completely powerless.

I once worked for one of those Big Box stores which have a dapartment store and grocery all in one. It was the worst job I ever had. Between nasty, rude customers and nasty, rude bosses, I was miserable-- and I’m sure it showed.

One of my bosses once took me back into the employee area and screamed at me until I cried over something I did not do, then put me right back out at the register with tears still on my cheeks, snapping at me that I’d better smile. I must have looked like a gargoyle.

6

Not to hijack my own thread, but the description of forums states, in re: the BBQ Pit

(bolding mine)

I’m complaining, if you hadn’t noticed.

Frankly, this bullshit “war” between the Pit and MPSIMS is tiresome. YMMV.

7

But why are the two mutually exclusive? It doesn’t cost anything to show eye contact. It costs nothing to simply smile and treat another human as though they might exist. I’m just saying that, without customers, there’d be no business. Acknowledge the customer is there, for heaven’s sake.

8

Really? Wow, I remember when it was just a 3-store chain of unremarkable grocery stores. Looks like someone there was thinking.

I once walked out of a restaurant without paying for my meal. I spent about 30 minutes post-meal trying to get the bartender’s attention so I could pay. I might as well have been invisible. Being that my meal came to $8.39, and all I had was a twenty, I was not going to just leave the money and leave. No way she deserved a tip of 138%.

9

The meaning of the sentence you quoted is clearly complaining about the administration of the SDMB, not complaining in general.

10

In which thread?

11

{{{{{{My MPSIMS brothers and sisters.}}}}}}

12

I apologize in advance for extending this hijack, but …

a “war” between two SDMB forums :rolleyes: ? Who could possibly care enough to have an opinion?

So a Pit thread is not much of a flame. Zippee-dee-doo-dah. Sheesh. Whose life is affected, again?

…

Now then:

Answer to Feydeau: they’re not mutually exclusive. Like so many things, poor customer service is not a whit improved by merely throwing money at the problem.

Working at Bix Box stored for 1.5 x minimum wage need not be a soul-crushing experience. The reason it commonly is so is that it’s up to both management and employees to volitionally foster good customer service. Regrettalbly, management at such locations is commonly (though not invariably) the last resort of the incompetent (if I may mangle Asimov). See Lissa’s old boss for an example.

In Big Box stores where management is firm but fair-minded towards the employees, and at the same time does not abide the “Lissa’s boss” abusers and power trippers, things improve for the grunts on the floor – and customers – dramatically.

13

:smack:

Big Box stores

14

It’s been my experience that “quietly clearing [your] throat” isn’t enough to get someone’s attention. If I had been you, I would’ve interrupted long before the lottery celebration with, “Excuse me, but would you please ring me up?” I would’ve kept at it, every five seconds or so, gradually increasing the volume of my voice until someone rang me up.

As long as you’re willing to stand there and be treated like a doormat, they will treat you as such. Methinks the OP needs to grow some balls.

15

No.

The only thing I would suggest you do differently would be to, assertively and pleasantly, say to the cashier, “Excuse me - I would like you to process my order now” when she started fooling around with all that other stuff.

16

::high-fives Lord Ashtar::

17

There is a secret to getting excellent customer service wherever you go. I have posted similar thoughts before, so if this seems familiar to some this is why. In essence there are two components, one that is tangible and that everyone can do and one that may be a little more out of reach (but I swear that just doing the first one will help a lot).

The first thing that you need to do is to become a regular wherever you shop. This takes a little time, but the payoff is well worth it. In essence, all that this means is that pick a store for a consumer need and stick with it. When you shop at this store, it is also important to treat the people that work there as actual humans. Make chit chat about the weather. Complement them on their jewelry, or any personal item that is allowed beyond the uniform. Get to know their names (nametags don’t count, pretend that you can’t read them or that they don’t exist) You get the idea. You will find the payoff for this is huge.

The second thing is more of an intangible. It seems to be comprised of natural charisma and good manners as well as extra patience and a bit of a sense of entitlement.

Using the example of the OP, what I can say is that if that happened at the grocery store where I am a regular first and foremost, I would not be irritated by the wait because I would simply be enjoying watching the people. Second, the cashier would know that she was specifically making me wait and be urging folks along because when I go through her line I add to her humanity and to her day, and finally I would probably be exchanging some pleasantries with her as I went through that let her know that I didn’t find fault with her making me wait and that she was adding to my day as well.

And I guess, for what it is worth as a parting thought, it is not as if I do my shopping at ma and pa stores all the time. We are talking Safeway or Hollywood video or Starbucks here.

18

I must disagree.

Quality training programs cost money. Hiring smarter, more polite people costs money. Speedy register systems cost money.

Low priced items don’t exist simply because management doesn’t want to make a large profit. Something has to give in order to reduce prices, and the area almost always cut first is payroll.

Advice: Don’t waste your sarcasm on the cashier. He/she probably doesn’t care anyway. Speak to the management. Explain why you will no longer be shopping at that store.

Next, search your town until you find a store with excellent customer service. Give that store your business despite the fact that strawberries are thirty cents more a pint. Encourage your friends to do the same.

When slightly low prices are no longer enough to lure customers into a store, only then will this dismal customer service world change.

19

That’s why I shop at Publix. Clean stores, friendly cashiers, helpful staff. I’ve had stockers stop what they were doing and escort me to the correct aisle to find something.

20

Biotop, I don’t know. My experience is that I can get good customer service wherever I go. I really don’t have to look for it at all. I am pretty sure that what is most at play here is how people treat each other.