Customer Avoidance Techniques

[RetailActress]

You're not the only one on duty. Let your co-workers deal with them.

What are your best ways for sneakily avoiding interactions with annoying customers?

Some suggestions:

1. Keep a vigilant eye on the parking lot, and who's getting out of cars and approaching your store, especially if they're carrying your logo bags which means RETURNS!

2. Detect an annoying customer appoaching? Go to the ladies'/men's room.

3. Detect an annoying customer approaching? (ALTERNATIVE) State: "I'm taking my break now!"

4. You're supposed to greet every customer & inform her/him of special store promotions, right? Don't. Come on, the signs are up there - can s/he read?! If s/he buys something, s/he'll be oh-so-thrilled when s/he's informed of a discount at checkout.

5. When customer enters store, say: "Hi! Just feel like browsing? Oh, OK, sure! Let me know if I can help you later on!" This puts the "burden of help" on customer. You gave them "permission" to browse; in exchange, they must seek you out if they need "help." Try not to be on the floor. There's always plenty of stockroom straightening out to do, isn't there?" Or, don't you need to step outside to make sure that that the window displays look right?

PLEASE add your own suggestions to this thread!

With great appreciation,

RetailActress

t

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Pushing around the loudest, squeakiest 6-wheeler I can find, so people practically have to shout to be heard by me.

Pretending not to hear requests for help ("Oh, you were talking to me? Sorry, I didn't hear you. Loud music and concerts have my hearing kinda screwed up.)

Bobbing and weaving down all the aisles so customers who might ask me for help lose track of me.

[Hyndis]

I look tired and overworked. Most customers realize this, and thus don't bother me needlessly.

[Evil Queen]

I do the bathroom one when I can get away with it. or...

My shift is balanced, why don't YOU take the next customer?

I already made my drop [into the safe].

Holy Snap, I have an appointment! *runs*

[scroob]

fake a seisure, or under more extreme case, fake your own death...CRAP. just realized i can't do that anymore........

[penguingeekgod]

You're not the only one on duty. Let your co-workers deal with them.


2. Detect an annoying customer appoaching? Go to the ladies'/men's room.

3. Detect an annoying customer approaching? (ALTERNATIVE) State: "I'm taking my break now!"
t

We did those at the car wash I worked at. There was this gay guy that came in on a regular basis. The problem was not that he was gay, but, rather, that it was well known that he worked as a male stripper. This would be less of a problem if he didn't pay in ALL SINGLES. All thing considered, we all had a good idea on where that money had been, so the vets left the n00bs to deal with the cash, but they were told to leave it aside. Said cash got washed in the back room.

Dick $$$ *shudder*

[Big-box-retail-blues]

Jedi mind tricks: When asking a customer if they need assistance slowly shake your head side to side. When asking a customer if everything is alright slowly nod your head up and down.

Walk fast with a dtermined look in your eyes.

Always carry papers, a clipboard, etc with you and if management or customers are coming your eye look at said papers with as much purpose as you can possible muster.

Never actually be trying to get anything done.

[penguingeekgod]

One thing I would do is as soon as I realize I have a SC, I get the manager and let THEM deal with it. Basically, I'm getting minimum wage, you are getting $10/hr plus bennies. You handle it.

[jerkface11]

I'm the boss you do it.

[penguingeekgod]

fake a seisure,

My dad did that to get a table at a restaurant when my diabetic grandma's blood sugar was dangerously low...

[Kiwi]

When I was working for the shipping company, I would always keep a pile of "non" urgent work that needed to be photocopied. From my desk I could see customers coming in before the other person in my team could.

I got into the practise of always needing to go to the bathroom or having to photocopy something RIGHT THEN as soon as I saw them. I usually had 10-15 seconds to get away before they came through the door.

It was about 7 months before the other team member realised what I was doing...

[mattm04]

If I see a particular SC I will attempt to hide in the back room or slip down a random aisle. We have several aisles that don't run the whole length of the store. They have a 4 to 5 ft gap between sections in the middle. I will go down one of those aisles, cross the middle and exit three aisles down from where I entered.

[smileyeagle1021]

sadly most of my shift I'm the only person here

though, I have learned a trick when you don't want to deal with people when you are sold out (or all you have is suites and you know no one wants to use those at 1am)... when I see headlights approaching, I quickly make sure that the computer that can bee seen from the desk (not well enough to get names or information, but enough to see the rooms on the room board) has it's room board filter set at "do not show- occupied rooms, vacant rooms, out of inventory rooms" (basically, don't show any rooms), then put up the "back in 5 minute sign" we use when we need to use the restroom or do an errand in the hotel... without fail people will walk up, see the empty room board and figure out we are sold out and there is no purpose waiting for me to come back to tell them... if htey don't then they really suck.

[Pezzle]

This is all too complicated. We used to crawl into the tech cabinets and hide. In fact, at Circuit City I used to crawl into the under storage for the computers and hide behind boxes

[tropicsgoddess]

When I worked in the frame shop department at M's, I took off my red apron and left it inside the frame shop so I didn't have a gaggle of people incessantly bothering me while I was stocking shelves. It worked like a charm and management never gave me shit about it.