I agree and also disagree. *rambling*

[notalwaysright]

So at Ye Olde fabric store, we use the take a number system for the fabric table. I (and others) have talked about this before. We have a temporary store manager, because the previous one retired after like 25 years, and NO ONE wants the job. I have no problem with this manager, I worked with her years ago when she was a different type of manager. She is very strict about every single person taking a number, and calling the number on the overhead. Again, this doesn't bother me. It's practical. We don't always know if someone took a number if they are not in our direct line of sight.

Here comes my disagree part. This is super hard to maintain early in the morning. I see someone walk up, am 100% positive that no one has pulled a number. How do I know? Because I had pulled the ticket partway out of the holder to see what it was. I can see that number is still there. But, following instructions, I ask her to take a number. I then have to page that number over the loudspeaker. While she stares at me from six feet away. Basically this whole thing makes me look like a raving lunatic. But only when we're slow. The other 99% of the time, it's great.

I managed to accidentally piss someone off doing this... She comes up and I ask if she has a number. She looks confused, as there are two employees not helping anyone. She says something (huh?) and I ask if she's 13, and she says "oh, yes I am." I say, "are you really?" Okay, that is a foot in mouth, oh crap comment. Just stupid on my part. I have no defense, instead I'll try to explain what possessed me to say it.

People will quite often just say they are the next number and aren't. Sometimes they don't have a number, and sometimes they have one it just isn't next. It's not a big deal, but it messes with our system if I move the number early. The next person might get skipped. Plus, she acted so confused, and came from the opposite direction of the take a number thing. But anyway, she goes off, "You want PROOF?!" and goes back fast to the pattern table (where I guess she had left her number), and I'm calling after her, "No, that's not what... Come back!" And she didn't come back right away, so I didn't end up cutting for her.

Arg. And it's not like I can explain it to her. I can barely type it in a way that makes sense. And guess what? If she didn't have a number, and someone else had the next number, I would have been yelled at for that. It's a no win.

[MoonCat]

I don't think you did anything wrong. The way the system works, yes, you DO need proof. That's what that little number ticket is for. It keeps people honest. If she had actually had the number 13, when you asked, "Are you 13?" she would have held up the ticket...and when you said, "Are you really?" pretty much anybody--especially an SC--would have held that ticket up and probably made a big production about it.

When you asked if she was number 13 her devious SC mind went straight to "I am now!"

[Shannarah]

I suppose one way that you might word it (if you are allowed to, is

"May I take your ticket, please?"

I dont know if management would be ok with it, but it would be a good way to confirm that it is the right customer with the right number, not just someone bullshitting you.
One way to spin it to management possibly, is if people leave tickets laying around the store after having been served, - it serves a double purpose, confirming the right number, and you can dispose of the ticket in your (I'm assuming you have one) bin to "stop trash and the store looking untidy"

[XCashier]

People will quite often just say they are the next number and aren't. Sometimes they don't have a number, and sometimes they have one it just isn't next.

I ask them for the ticket. I say it's so the tickets don't end up all over the store. Which they do, so it's not a lie, but it's only part of the reason. I ask so I can check the number and be sure they actually are next. But the anti-littering reason is quite acceptable to my customers, so they hand it over with no complaint.

People have tried (and sometimes succeeded) to queue-jump by saying they're the number you just called when they're actually several numbers after. So yes, when the store is even slightly busy, I am pretty strict on the numbers. Though if the store is stone dead, the numbers are caught up and the customer is the only one, I'll probably serve her without her taking a number.

[notalwaysright]

I ask them for the ticket.

Though if the store is stone dead, the numbers are caught up and the customer is the only one, I'll probably serve her without her taking a number.

I normally offer to throw the number away for them. I only directly ask for the number if it's very busy, and not one of my co-workers asks at all. I suspect there will be minor upheaval with this new manager. I also like to get the number because sometimes another customer will pick one up and claim we skipped them. Or, very rarely, two people come up with the "same" number. Only one is say, B34 and the other is C34. C34 is next, but B34 will swear up and down that they pulled it from the holder instead of admitting that they found it on the floor.

Yeah, it was dead, and that's why I was so awkward. I wouldn't have made a big deal about it if we hadn't just had the big speech about making every customer get a number, even if they're the first one in the store or the last one out. *sigh* I suspect this person is going to get the store manager job, so I might as well get used to it.

[Kanalah]

I had to stop in your store over the weekend. (Asian fabrics ftw!) and I took in my daughter. I showed her how to use the take-a-number system, and then I had her pull a number for us, and wait patiently for our turn. So hopefully one less SC in the future.

[MoonCat]

I usually see the number system at the deli in the supermarket. Most places I'm familiar with have a little basket on the counter where you can toss the ticket when your number's been called.

I still think that indignant customer didn't have a ticket at all and got huffy so she wouldn't have to prove she was next.

[XCashier]

I managed to accidentally piss someone off doing this... She comes up and I ask if she has a number. She looks confused, as there are two employees not helping anyone. She says something (huh?) and I ask if she's 13, and she says "oh, yes I am." I say, "are you really?" ... But anyway, she goes off, "You want PROOF?!" and goes back fast to the pattern table (where I guess she had left her number), and I'm calling after her, "No, that's not what... Come back!" And she didn't come back right away, so I didn't end up cutting for her.

I just remembered, I had someone similar to this a while back. I named her Madame Passive-Aggressive. Long story short, she complained about the number system to the customer I was serving, trying to passive-aggressively coerce me into taking her next, with or without a number, and I refused to play that game, resulting in thrown fabric and her stomping out the door.

It's not just you. And we all have an occasional attack of foot-in-mouth disease. Heaven knows, I've done that more times than I care to remember. So don't feel too bad if someone makes a scene over a silly little numbered piece of paper.

[notalwaysright]

I'm resurrecting this thread to say, I'm not sorry anymore about my original "are you really?" comment. Maybe I could have phrased it different, but I'm not sorry I asked even if it was a slow day. And I'm going to start making people give me their number, too.

Why you might ask? Because today we nearly had a fight related to the take a number system. This is second hand from two different co-workers. It's the dreaded Senior Discount day. This isn't a regular thing, so we are PACKED. A lady takes a number, gets her fabric cut, and pays. She then decides she wants one more fabric. So she finds the manager and says we skipped her number. Said manager was not at the cutting counter, so she didn't know this was a lie. She comes up with the lady and says we skipped her, and should help her next. The employees recognize her and say she wasn't skipped. Lady says she was. At this point, another customer starts yelling from across the way, "Yes you were helped! You have to take another number, we have been waiting for an hour!" So it goes shrieking back and forth, and the first lady ends up leaving.

None of this would have happened if the employee had taken the number in the first place! It was actually a really horrible day. People were not understanding, and although my co-workers and I were trying to keep positive and not get sucked under, it was a losing battle.

[XCashier]

Aw, jeeze, that's awful. Stupid selfish people just have to screw things up for everybody, and you catch hell over it.

I wasn't scheduled today, thank heaven. I hate senior days. I am horrible at guessing ages; I've seen 60-year-olds who look 40 and vice-versa. The customer is supposed to show their ID to get the discount, but they never do, then they pitch a fit if they don't get their discount. Thankfully, the senior days are only two or three times a year.

Notalwaysright, have you seen this thread? http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...d.php?t=107994 Check it out; it links to an article you might like, regarding our workplace.

[Willowe]

XCashier, thanks for posting a link to that thread and article. It was an interesting read for a new employee like me.

notalwaysright, I sympathize with your ticket problems. Our store just got upgraded to the take-a-ticket system during our remodel this summer, so no one in the store is used to reminding people to take a ticket yet. This means we sometimes get people who have been waiting in line for 15-20 minutes with no ticket and then someone who comes up after a minute or so with what's technically supposed to be the next ticket for cutting. It's a disaster.

[XCashier]

We've got this script for making announcements to take a ticket, but very few coworkers read it over the address system. When I'm on the cutting counter, I try to read it out every half hour. Sometimes the customers get it, sometimes they still don't. What gets me is when one customer tears the ticket off flush with the dispenser (instead of pulling it straight through so the next ticket's tab is sticking out), then the next customer claims there are no more tickets in the dispenser. Take-a-ticket systems have been around for decades, and people still can't (or won't) figure out how to use them.

Our current store opened in November of 2012 and we've had the take-a-ticket system since, but people still aren't used to it. Or they just don't want to. I don't know, I think they're being ridiculous flipping out over taking a small numbered piece of paper, especially since most of them are old enough to be my mother, but whatever.

[notalwaysright]

Our store just got upgraded to the take-a-ticket system during our remodel this summer, so no one in the store is used to reminding people to take a ticket yet. This means we sometimes get people who have been waiting in line for 15-20 minutes with no ticket and then someone who comes up after a minute or so with what's technically supposed to be the next ticket for cutting. It's a disaster.

Our store is not even close to new, and I know that at least since 2005 we've had a take a number system. Yet every day someone hangs around and gets told, or they hear us call a number and they say "oh, I'm supposed to take a number?"

XCashier: What kind of script? Is it like the closing announcements? We don't do anything like that over the loud speaker, it's a good idea though. I have a couple generic ways to remind people. If I'm alone cutting and someone comes up to stand at the table next to myself and the customer I say "whenever you're ready, the numbers are over there." If I'm alone or for some reason the people waiting are just grouped up staring at me silently I'll say "everyone who's waiting has numbers, right? You can keep shopping until we call your number." Because I hate the death glares.

On a side note (since I already started rambling again) on Senior Discount day, I kept hearing this one phrase over and over. I can't in written form fully express how mad it made me to hear it repeatedly. Ready? "Next time I should take a number when I walk in the door!" or similar. And they say it in that kind of humorously exasperated "see, I'm trying to be cheerful!" tone. Passive aggressive shaming of employees who are clearly the ones CAUSING the problem.

[XCashier]

XCashier: What kind of script? Is it like the closing announcements?

It's something like, "Good morning/afternoon/evening, Fabric Store Customers! We now have a take-a-ticket system for having yardage cut. If you have fabric, foam or trim to be cut, please take a ticket at the cutting counter. There are no lines to wait in, so you may continue to shop until your number is called. Thank you for shopping at Fabric Store, we are now serving customer number XX at the cutting counter."

On a side note (since I already started rambling again) on Senior Discount day, I kept hearing this one phrase over and over. I can't in written form fully express how mad it made me to hear it repeatedly. Ready? "Next time I should take a number when I walk in the door!" or similar.

"Why yes, you should, that's a great idea!" said oh-so-cheerfully, of course.

And they say it in that kind of humorously exasperated "see, I'm trying to be cheerful!" tone. Passive aggressive shaming of employees who are clearly the ones CAUSING the problem.

Yep, just like the ones who bring up 90 bolts of fabric to be measured and cut and complain about how long it takes. Or the ones at the register who want to know the price of each and every item, have to be reminded before handing over their coupons, wait until the total is rung up to start digging through their purses for their checkbooks, insist on s-l-o-w-l-y filling out the check even though they don't need to, dig through their purse again for their driver's license...then take another ten minutes to bitch you out because "service is so slow here!" (And of course, they never want to speak to a manager, they'd rather scream at the powerless employee instead!)

Yeah, I've just had a hellacious week, can't you tell?