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What's your response to this rant about retail?

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  • What's your response to this rant about retail?

    This comes from another site I occasionally visit as part of a discussion about a store who gave a customer some wrong information about an HDMI cable and I was curious as to CSers opinions on this comment:

    "It's called the service industry for a reason. If you don't like it, find employment elsewhere. I didn't like it so I left that line of work. I didn't want to be either a "wage slave" or a "floor monkey".

    In retail two rules should always sit in the back of your mind. 1. The customer is always right. If you want repeat business and your boss isn't an idiot, always adhere to this rule. 2. You are expendable and easily replaceable. If you don't like it, find a way to increase your value as human capital.

    Additionally, a good friend once gave me this advice to being happily employed.
    1. Never work retail.
    2. Never work food service.
    3. Never work retail. "
    "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

  • #2
    Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
    "It's called the service industry for a reason. If you don't like it, find employment elsewhere.
    I'm sure I'll get yelled at, (as I have before) but it's true.

    Now we all have bad days so I'm not talking about those, and I understand that some people aren't skilled for much.

    However, if your job is customer interaction, and you hate people what are you doing in that position?

    I read in Lee Iaccoca's autobiography that his father (who owned restaurants) would pull bad waitresses aside and ask them why they were wasting their time and his. They were clearly not cut out to do the work.

    Sometimes life dictates the kind of job you have to take, but if you can avoid it you shouldn't be in a position you're not cut out for.

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    • #3
      Anyone who has worked retail knows that the customer is NOT always right.

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth alogram View Post
        Anyone who has worked retail knows that the customer is NOT always right.
        Technically, that's not what the quote is supposed to mean. It wasn't an indication of a person's factual accuracy, but as both a sales and dispute resolution technique. It's not that they're right, but that you should never make them feel wrong.

        Basically, properly applied, the technique looks thus:

        "You people should be open 24 hours a day! This is so inconvenient!"

        "You're right, it would be convenient for us to be open 24 hours a day, however by targeting our operating hours to the times when we're busiest, we're able to keep our operating costs lower and pass on better prices to you."
        Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

        http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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        • #5
          Quoth Broomjockey View Post
          Basically, properly applied, the technique looks thus:

          "You people should be open 24 hours a day! This is so inconvenient!"

          "You're right, it would be convenient for us to be open 24 hours a day, however by targeting our operating hours to the times when we're busiest, we're able to keep our operating costs lower and pass on better prices to you."
          Exactly instead of "Why? some of us don't want to work/shop at night" like I've heard said before.

          It can suck being diplomatic to people that don't get it. And sometimes you just can't be nice anymore, but there's no need to cut people off at the knees for 1 comment.

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          • #6
            Sorry if that was rude, not my intention.

            Comment


            • #7
              The FIRST thing you quickly find out when you're working in retail is that "The Customer is NOT always right". Because someone comes in to buy stuff & you're there to serve them doesn't mean they have Carte Blanche to treat you like a slave. Try that shit in the corporate world & you're liable to have your ass handed to you. BUT because it's in a retail location, most people who wouldn't dream of putting up with that kind of abuse in their off hours somehow put up with it while working. It should never be condoned, accepted or tolerated.

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              • #8
                It won't work.

                Quoth Broomjockey View Post

                "You people should be open 24 hours a day! This is so inconvenient!"

                "You're right, it would be convenient for us to be open 24 hours a day, however by targeting our operating hours to the times when we're busiest, we're able to keep our operating costs lower and pass on better prices to you."

                "What?! Do you mean to say that if you were open 24 hours a day, you'd charge higher prices? Why should I pay extra just to get you to do what you SHOULD be doing for me, anyway? This is terrible service! You should be open 24 hours AND charge lower prices!"

                And later on :

                "I can't believe how rude that sales clerk was! All I said was that it would be nice if they were open more hours so it's more convenient, and he snapped at me, saying that I'd have to pay him more to get them to do that!"

                (Yes, the customer is lying. Or, at least, stretching the truth to make himself/herself look more favorable. That's what SCs and EWs do.)


                You can't reason with unreasonable people.

                In my experience . . . If anything, it only makes them angrier.


                It's like when managers, Corporate people, and customer service "experts" say that you should always apologize to angry customers, even when the customers are actually the ones at fault.

                In theory, saying that you're sorry will help alleviate the conflict, soothe the customer's anger, and make things proceed more smoothly.

                In reality, saying that you're sorry will often be perceived as an admission that the company screwed up. All too often, an apology will only reinforce the customer's belief that they are getting bad service.

                If anything, an apology to an SC or EW will only embolden them. It will encourage them to be bigger and bigger SCs and EWs, complain even more about the service they get, demand "compensation," demand that employees be fired, etc., etc.


                I'm sure that everybody here can share stories of times when they apologized to an angry customer, and it actually DID help alleviate the situation. I have stories like that, too.

                And my response to all of those stories is simple :

                In the short term, yes, it's possible (not guaranteed, but possible) for an apology or otherwise being diplomatic to ease a conflict.

                But in the long term . . . In my experience, these things have a cumulative effect. Apologizing and being diplomatic to an unreasonable customer once may work, but quite often, it will just make their next blow-up even worse.

                It's a "penny wise and pound foolish" approach.
                Last edited by Anthony K. S.; 11-06-2009, 12:15 AM.
                “Excuse me. Is this bracelet real jade?”
                “Ma’am, this is a thrift shop. The tag on the bracelet says $1.50. It comes with a matching mood ring. What do you think?”
                “I don’t know.”
                “Yes, it’s real.”

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth Anthony K. S. View Post
                  You can't reason with unreasonable people.
                  By definition, an unreasonable person will be unreasonable. As I said, though, it's meant to be a problem resolution mantra, not a cure-all. You can come up with any number of insane responses to reasonable comments. The problem is, most people aren't actually unreasonable. They're simply oblivious. The key is to find a way to politely introduce them to facts.

                  I think most of us on here are sort of skewed in our perspectives about how unreasonable people can be, just because we come on here and tell our stories about the worst of the worst, the people that constantly get under our skin, and it all can feed a perception that there are a ton of really idiotic, unreasonable assholes out in the world. But the introduction on the oft-forgotten main page reminds us...

                  That's right. Not all customers suck. The very philosophy of this site is that not all customers are evil and should be treated with contempt. We even have a section of the forum for praising customers who go out of their way to help workers deal with their life.


                  We're here for the minority who make themselve noticeable by acting ... suckily. There is a huge mass of people who are barely noticeable because they act as normal human beings, but others commit acts of weapon-grade stupidity or cruelty that stun even the most hardened CSR. That's why we're here. Be they cheating the system, stealing, scamming, dumber than a bagful of spanners, entitlement-minded, or the most loathsome creature to have set foot in sunlight and still survived, this is where we gather to speak of their foulness.
                  How many customers do you deal with during an average shift? When I worked at a movie theatre that would have upwards of 5,000 people come through a shift, I'd be "lucky" to get something worthy of being posted once a week. One person of true unreasonability in 25,000. Even VacationRentalsSuck, who gets some really nasty customers, or Gravekeeper, who deals with the bottom rung of the ladder, have an incredibly tiny proportion of their customer base as worth posting about. So, while the technique won't work on everyone, it DOES work. And more often than you'd think. So you're better off focusing on the times it does work, and just venting later about the assholes. Like you said, you can't reason with the unreasonable ones. But not all of them ARE unreasonable. Some just don't know.
                  Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

                  http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                    How many customers do you deal with during an average shift? When I worked at a movie theatre that would have upwards of 5,000 people come through a shift, I'd be "lucky" to get something worthy of being posted once a week. One person of true unreasonability in 25,000. Even VacationRentalsSuck, who gets some really nasty customers, or Gravekeeper, who deals with the bottom rung of the ladder, have an incredibly tiny proportion of their customer base as worth posting about.
                    That pretty much sums it up... maybe one, two a week were genuinely sucky.

                    I don't think someone who keeps a generally pleasant tone but doesn't say every please and thank you like a toddler being trained in manners is sucky...just perhaps absentminded, busy, or otherwise not all with it. "Common courtesy" in the south often seems servile and fawning to folks from other areas, just as a perfectly acceptable interaction to a New Yorker (for example) comes across as brusque to someone raised in the south.

                    Now throw in being rude and aggressive and that changes entirely, of course.

                    (Not judging either area's manners as right or wrong, mind...but I got a quick education in regional differences when a relative from another part of the country asked me why I was "bowing and scraping like a house n*****" to a worker who I was simply treating the same way as I treat all workers.)
                    "English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results."
                    - H. Beam Piper

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                    • #11
                      Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
                      "It's called the service industry for a reason. If you don't like it, find employment elsewhere. I didn't like it so I left that line of work. I didn't want to be either a "wage slave" or a "floor monkey".
                      First off, unless you are independently wealthy and don't have to work for a living, you are just as much of a wage slave as the rest of us.

                      Second, the term "floor monkey" is downright insulting and rude. Anybody who used that term in my hearing would get an ear full.



                      Eric the Grey
                      In memory of Dena - Don't Drink and Drive

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