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How Dare You Be Too Busy to Smile?!

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  • How Dare You Be Too Busy to Smile?!

    Right so, I'm a Trade Desk worker. That means, not only am I dealing with trades people and building products, some of which I'm not overly familiar with yet, but I also handle the orders system. Myself and two other workers are the only ones who deal with company account orders. One coworker, who I'll call Val, isn't really overly helpful, despite the fact she started years before me. The other, who I'll call Dan, is awesome. He pretty much runs the show. Or as he tells me: "I'm the Queen of this trade desk, but you can be the Princess. All hail us." Gay man in his late 40's, huge nerd, extremely dry and sarcastic sense of humour - we get along like a house on fire and our area supervisor stops by the desk whenever she's in just to listen to the banter.

    Anyway, this morning, Val's off for the day and Dan doesn't get in till 11. I start at 7, so I'm running the show. Weekends are usually nice and slow. Not this time! No orders coming in because weekend is close of business for most jobsites, although I have a tonne of weekend warrior DIY types buying project supplies. So I'm spending the day clearing a backlog of paperwork for next week and trying to sort out which quotes need confirmation/cancelling. Basically, I'm still busy as hell. Cue one guy. He's in a company van, with two screaming kids in tow, maybe about 10/12 years old?

    He's got a bunch of reticulation fittings, all mix and match, pipes he doesn't know the codes for (or even what sort of pipes - for gods sake just give me the dimensions!), and all the while, kids screaming about their playstation or something. So I'm probably looking a little frazzled at this point, especially since I've got a huge line building up, and this guys buying a whole garden sheds worth of little tiny interconnecting pipe fittings.

    Now, In our store, we don't have bags. We use empty stock boxes. This guy asks for a box. I direct him to where we keep them off to the side as I'm scanning things in. I'm not rude or terse, but I am direct. He indicates he doesn't know where they are, so I point to them for him, and he asks several more questions I can barely hear over the yelling He goes and gets one, and as I finish scanning and loading his stuff up, he snaps "What, did you take some happy pills this morning or something?" Almost no warning that was coming.

    I tell him "no sir, but as I have six orders I'm trying to clear out of backlog and 12 other customers at this desk, I am under a certain amount of pressure right now." Ended up coming through rather dryly, in a kind of "I really don't have the time to deal with your impending tantrum" kind of way.

    His reply? "Well maybe you should try to smile once in a while? Might actually be this thing called customer service!"
    Because I respond really well to people sarcasticatin' at me.

    My response was to look him dead in the eye and calmly let him know "I'll take that into consideration for next time sir."

    He grumps off to his car with his still yelling children, and as the next customer walks up to the desk, gets to hear the guy loudly announce "Christ you deal with some assholes love!"

    Nearly lost it at his asshole's facial expression as he drove out the gate!
    Patient has severely impacted cranial rectosis. There's probably no cure. - Overheard in ER

  • #2
    I would have said, "and maybe you can do MY job and try doing the same things with a smile on your face. Let's see how you handle THAT one." Then direct him over to the counter and see how long he lasts.

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    • #3
      I love your answer. Direct and to the point!

      I might've been tempted to add, "Smiles are extra today." Either that or give him one of those big, scary, toothy smiles a la Jack Nicholson...
      When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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      • #4
        Perhaps you could tell him "I promise I'll be smiling when you leave.".
        "All I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who out-drew ya"

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        • #5
          Quoth Latekin View Post
          His reply? "Well maybe you should try to smile once in a while?"
          My reply, "I don't get paid to smile."
          "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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          • #6
            *gets on floor*

            "WHAAAA, WHAAAAAA. NO ONE SMILED AT ME. MY FEELINGS ARE CRUSHED! IMA CALL CORPORATE ON CHOOOO!!!!!"

            *Thrashes on floor for awhile while making banshee noises but eventually gets up and brushes self off*


            Is it just me or does smiling always get brought up by people whining about customer service? WTH does not smiling have to do with the quality of service? Do these people always smile when they are at work?

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            • #7
              Quoth Ironclad Alibi View Post
              My reply, "I don't get paid to smile."
              that's an extra $5 per hour and the bosses are cheap

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              • #8
                I had a customer ask me why I wasn't smiling the other day. I replied that I have Aspergers and smiling is really difficult for me. She did a facepalm and said, "I should have realised that... my niece has that and she doesn't smile very often!"

                Most of the time I try to put a smile into my voice instead, but it was really busy and I was stressed.
                People who don't like cats were probably mice in an earlier life.
                My DeviantArt.

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                • #9
                  Why is somebody buying that many plumbing fittings not going to a plumbing supply? At your typical Home Improvement store in the US, the plumbing section is more for homeowners, and occasionally plumbers that need to pick up one little part and don't want to drive all the way back to the city to the plumbing warehouse. The prices for commercial accounts are better at the warehouse, and they'll pull the entire order for you (the employees there have adult-size tricycles with shopping baskets to pull stock.) And the shelving is not a complete dumpster-fire of misplaced products where some hapless homeowner has pawed through half the drawers and put back fittings in random places, torn open baggies of washers to steal one, etc.
                  Last edited by sirwired; 12-01-2015, 12:47 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Lace Neil Singer View Post
                    I had a customer ask me why I wasn't smiling the other day. I replied that I have Aspergers and smiling is really difficult for me. She did a facepalm and said, "I should have realised that... my niece has that and she doesn't smile very often!"
                    I have Asperger's (I believe, I have never been officially diagnosed), and I, too, have difficulty smiling on command. I always try to sound as pleasant as possible to mask this inability, but occasionally I get the half-chiding, "C'mon, smile...!"

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                    • #11
                      Quoth flyonthewall View Post
                      Is it just me or does smiling always get brought up by people whining about customer service? WTH does not smiling have to do with the quality of service? Do these people always smile when they are at work?
                      At the 'we are here to make you feel like the Queen herself while you spend thousands of dollars on a single handbag' level of retail, it really is part of the job to bow, scrape, smile, flatter, grovel and kiss boots. And the staff can be paid accordingly, because the overhead can be high enough to do so without driving customers away.

                      The people whining about not being grovelled to want that level of service, but don't want to pay for it.

                      I suggest saying 'did you look at the price before you chose what to purchase? You did? Then you aren't willing to pay for the Harrod's level of service. So shut up and take what you pay for.'

                      .... except that you'd probably be fired.
                      Seshat's self-help guide:
                      1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                      2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                      3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                      4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                      "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                      • #12
                        when I worked at the gas station, if I smiled, it scared people....
                        "No matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Banzai

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                        • #13
                          I think that customers would be scared if they saw us all smiling like this:

                          People who don't like cats were probably mice in an earlier life.
                          My DeviantArt.

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                          • #14
                            And yet, people like Dilbert and Wally will still think that female retail employees who have to smile are flirting with them.
                            cindybubbles (👧 ❤️ 🎂 )

                            Enter Cindyland here!

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