Tweet
I really hated this ...
We had the usual two-person crew on tonight ... me and Team Lead. And we had the usual Tuesday night customer level: fairly slow and REALLY slow.
Until, of course, about half an hour before closing.
TL was helping a customer who had a lot of questions.
I was helping two young women -- one was looking for presents for her mom (she was polite enough to ask if it was OK if she took photos of some articles ... apparently she wanted to get Mom's OK before she bought anything
). So she takes her photos and (presumably) sends them to Mom and then gets on her phone and starts talking (presumably to Mom). Because of the photos, I had assumed she would come back at some other time to make the actual purchases.
Meanwhile the other girl is asking about a Gadget Bundle, and she ultimately bought one (yay me!!) plus some tea.
During all this, a middle-aged couple has come in and is standing patiently waiting. I told them we'd get to them as soon as we possibly could.
The Gift-Buyer decides she's going to buy something tonight after all. So I'm talking to her about this and that and the other ... and I see the couple quietly leave the store.
I felt badly about it, even though there was virtually nothing I or TL could've done -- we could hardly dump the customers we were dealing with, even though they were taking a fair amount of time. The only thing I could've done was indicate clearly that I was dealing with TWO customers, so they didn't think (as they well might have) that I had gone from one customer to another and bypassed them for no reason.
Thankfully, this happens VERY rarely. If they return while I'm on shift (and IF I recognize them, LOL) they will get drinks on the house.
Until, of course, about half an hour before closing.
TL was helping a customer who had a lot of questions.
I was helping two young women -- one was looking for presents for her mom (she was polite enough to ask if it was OK if she took photos of some articles ... apparently she wanted to get Mom's OK before she bought anything
). So she takes her photos and (presumably) sends them to Mom and then gets on her phone and starts talking (presumably to Mom). Because of the photos, I had assumed she would come back at some other time to make the actual purchases.Meanwhile the other girl is asking about a Gadget Bundle, and she ultimately bought one (yay me!!) plus some tea.
During all this, a middle-aged couple has come in and is standing patiently waiting. I told them we'd get to them as soon as we possibly could.
The Gift-Buyer decides she's going to buy something tonight after all. So I'm talking to her about this and that and the other ... and I see the couple quietly leave the store.
I felt badly about it, even though there was virtually nothing I or TL could've done -- we could hardly dump the customers we were dealing with, even though they were taking a fair amount of time. The only thing I could've done was indicate clearly that I was dealing with TWO customers, so they didn't think (as they well might have) that I had gone from one customer to another and bypassed them for no reason.
Thankfully, this happens VERY rarely. If they return while I'm on shift (and IF I recognize them, LOL) they will get drinks on the house.