Timesavers you learned to prevent SCs

[notalwaysright]

We have so many new employees lately, things are going super slow at my work. I didn't think it was possible to go slower. So it made me think of things I learned that save time and can sometimes prevent a customer from going full on SC.


If someone starts describing something they "saw online", I go straight to the company website, look up the item, and see if we carry it in our store. If so, I can punch the article number into my handheld and it will give me the location. If not, I show the customer the screen which clearly says we don't have the item. Doing this FIRST, even while the customer is still painstakingly describing the item, saves so much time.

Our handhelds tell us the last time something was received. If a person wants more of something, and it says we have it in stock, first make sure it wasn't received today. If it was, it's in a mountain of boxes. All I do is gesture at the crazy piles of boxes and say that there's no way to find it immediately, but they can call in a day or so or do the store pickup. They might not be happy about it, but do you know how long a newbie will wander around looking for items before giving up? A long, long time.

Count two folds of fabric on a bolt and that's about a yard. So when I person says "do you think there are five yards on here?" while you're trying to stock fabric, you just count the folds and estimate.

Call your backup by name, if you have any brain.


........I apologize for that. Anyway, any little tricks you picked up?

[Shotgun Chuck]

When getting fry products, when possible, peep over cashiers' shoulders to see orders in progress before they show up on your screen. You won't be interacting directly with customers, but you will be interacting with a lot of impatient bosses and coworkers, and anything that keeps you ahead of them without you having to expend much extra effort is good for your health in both the short and long term.

Beware of the rat. I don't know who, but some customer apparently told a supervisor that I had a dirty mouth because I said "frick", causing him to pull me ominously into the office and make me ask far more questions that strictly necessary just to figure out what I did "wrong". Customer pegs the "really breh?" meter while supervisor pegs the "you gave me a heart attack over that?" meter.

If you can tell that customer traffic has reached critical mass, it's a good time to blitz everything. If you're on front counter, finish as many shake a juice orders as you can, even if you have to make people wait, because the number of people waiting and the length of time they wait will both increase massively before you're done. This is especially true on a weekend, when all the sodaphobes and ice creamers come in with their kids. If you're on fries, drop more of everything, because it's better to have too much stuff than to be constantly waiting on fries/onion rings/whatever. That's how you get behind and never catch up, which is how you get sworn at by bosses who think, for some reason, that that's helpful.

[Ghel]

When a customer calls in and tells me their name, I pull them up on the computer right away. That way, I can see a summary of their accounts before they even get to the question they're about to ask. As an added plus, I don't forget their name halfway through the conversation.

[KuariKaydrith]

When I worked in a call center I would use Notepad to take my notes and then copy and paste things over into my tools to pull up account information while confirming the reason for the call. I would also rarely put callers on hold, preferring to confirm their information and the reason for their call, and any previous case notes pertaining to today's call.

In my current job, it's all about templates and record keeping. I always make sure I've got way more copies of forms on hand than I'll need so that I don't risk running out over the weekends because my staff can't seem to figure out how to work a photocopier. I've also got step by step instructions for how to do certain record keeping tasks to keep my guards from calling me in the middle of the night because they forgot how to do something - it's all right there in the How To book.

[wolfie]

In my current job, it's all about templates and record keeping. I always make sure I've got way more copies of forms on hand than I'll need so that I don't risk running out over the weekends because my staff can't seem to figure out how to work a photocopier.

Do you have the original in electronic form (so you can print out a new master copy) or only on paper? If the latter, get yourself a "dropout blue" marker and write "master - do not use" across the front of the master copy. Otherwise, your cow-irkers (tm Dilbert), on using up the last of the copies, will use the master rather than making more copies.

[EricKei]

Otherwise, your cow-irkers (tm Dilbert), on using up the last of the copies, will use the master rather than making more copies.

Hopefully. They may also just see the one, marked-on copy remaining, shrug their shoulders, and use it anyway.

[chimera]

Our inventory system is so fracked, if a customer asks if we have more x anywhere, I will scan and check, but unless I have seen it in overstock recently, I fib and say we're out. Our stockroom is so backlogged, we've got boxes that have been sitting there more than a month. No way I can find what they're looking for, if indeed we even received it...because the inventory system is such a wreck.

Don't bother with add-on sales or asking an SC what their favorite color is (company asks us to ask something similar so customers feel like they're in some charming small-town shop or something...hahaha!). Most customers see right through that crap, and it just takes up time. Make a bit of small talk with the customer if you want to - if they look like they want it. Some people just want to buy their stuff and GO. Thank goodness we don't (yet) have any real quotas for add-on sales.

My biggest timesaver is to avoid vague language/ equivocating. No mays, mights, maybes or coulds. Customers can get mad if they think you're not giving them a straight answer. If you don't know something for sure, ask a coworker or manager.

If you are helping a customer on the phone and it's going to take a while to find/do what they want, offer to write down their phone number and call them back when you've got their stuff so they don't have to stay on hold. You can also offer to take their number/call them to let them know an item is in stock or w/e instead of telling them to call the store and check.

[MoonCat]

We have this deal where customers can add a photo to their ad for free. It's a MAJOR PITA to give them my email address and expect them to get it right*, so I just get their email, send them a note asking them to attach a photo to a reply, and send it back.

Most of them get that right and we're done.




*Most of them think it's a website. I spend way too much time explaining the difference.

[KuariKaydrith]

Do you have the original in electronic form (so you can print out a new master copy) or only on paper? If the latter, get yourself a "dropout blue" marker and write "master - do not use" across the front of the master copy. Otherwise, your cow-irkers (tm Dilbert), on using up the last of the copies, will use the master rather than making more copies.

I've got both. I've got a file folder with the hardcopy masters, and I've got electronic copies saved as well. I figured out early on what sort of folks I have working for me. I had to make up all the templates from scratch not long after I started because some wunderkind decided to destroy the originals that had been provided.

[gremcint]

Not SCs in rude or mean but SC in terms of ignorant. Don't ask what kind of cable do they want, ask what they are trying to connect. Everyone is convinced there is a magic usb cable with the same on both ends for hooking up to their tv to their laptop. Or that they can magically transfer their entire computer intall with one (there is something close to this on the market but it doesn't quite do what they think)

[chimera]

Not SCs in rude or mean but SC in terms of ignorant. Don't ask what kind of cable do they want, ask what they are trying to connect. Everyone is convinced there is a magic usb cable with the same on both ends for hooking up to their tv to their laptop. Or that they can magically transfer their entire computer intall with one (there is something close to this on the market but it doesn't quite do what they think)

This is smart! In a similar vein, if you have no idea what craft thing the customer is trying to describe, ask them what they are trying to make/use the item for. Sometimes there are regional differences in what an item is called. For example, the ball of string you use for knitting is called yarn in the US and wool across the pond. This gets confusing when I'm asked for wool (yarn) by a customer who has found me in the fabric department!

[notalwaysright]

This is smart! In a similar vein, if you have no idea what craft thing the customer is trying to describe, ask them what they are trying to make/use the item for. Sometimes there are regional differences in what an item is called. For example, the ball of string you use for knitting is called yarn in the US and wool across the pond. This gets confusing when I'm asked for wool (yarn) by a customer who has found me in the fabric department!

The yarn vs wool thing comes up pretty often, as some people from the North also call it wool. So I try to be helpful and ask "do you mean wool fabric or yarn?" I wish I could say that people just give me a straight answer, but they don't. Often they react like it's the stupidest question in the world. "Wool, that you knit with!" *mimes knitting* Don't get me wrong, I understand regional differences, that's why I asked nicely in the beginning... But if they get snarky I can do it right back. "Oh, you mean yarn. Wool is a fiber than comes from sheep, and we carry it in several different forms so I wanted to make sure I showed you the right thing."

Most employees will ask questions about the item before assuming, it's a very useful timesaver. Like if someone asks me for felt, I ask if they want felt squares or felt by the yard. These are completely across the store from each other, so it's a useful question.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Easy way to prevent SCs.

1.Shut and lock the doors and turn off the lights.
2.Turn off the phone.

[dalesys]

1.Shut and lock doors, turn off lights
2.Take phone off hook

3. Alarm company calls cops.