Service in Shops

[SarahH]

What do you think about the debate in the news recently about poor sales service in the UK (the Edwina Curry at Mothercare thingy!)

I must admit I do agree and I have been a shop assitant myself, but at the same time, some customers do deserve a right good kick up the ar*e!

With living in the states before... the service you receive there is so much better than here... they will go out of their way to help you. And they do ACTUALLY mean it when the say "have a nice day!"

 

[jenna]

I used to work as a sales assistant and think that some times its hard to be nice to people. People think that because you work there they can talk down to you. If some one was rude or had an attitude on id probebly just ignore them and walk off

 

[SarahH]

I know what you mean... but sometimes assitants anre mean when you are being plainly nice to them.

I used to have some crackers of customers.... the worst was when I worked in the Circulation Dept of a newspaper... I was in charge of the sales to home delivery customers. On one of the occations the managment put the cost of the morning journal up from 32p to 37p and I had soooo many complaints... one guy came in and said "do you know the national avergae rate of inflation is 2%... what you have done is 8.995365 blah blah% - GET A LIFE MAN!!! But you still have to smile sweetly and appologise!

 

[Minxy]

I worked in Retail for years and although I agree it can be tough to a handful of custiomers overall it's easy to just be polite and acknowledge people.

What pees me off in shops is being IGNORED! When the cashier's chatting to her colleague about Eastenders whilst taking £50 of your money is just out of order.

Or the assistant who rolls their eyes and sighs when you ask a question. Just because someone else (who you didn't even know about) just asked them the same thing.

Hand on heart, I was never rude to people like that

 

[Nicola]

I used to live in the States too and agree that things like "enjoy your day" are said and meant also not just staff being forced to tag such sentances onto the end of their "goodbye to customers" speech.

Some sales assistants here are GREAT, some are TERRIBLE.

I think a lot of it has to do with customers, my first job was a supermarket check out girl, loved it to start with was really bright and bubbly etc but after a while the customers would just wear you down and some of them were just plain nasty and I lost that sparkle I had in the early days.

By the time I left I hated the job. I loved the people I worked with etc but the customers I hated them which is sad because without them I wouldn't have had a job in the first place.

I've been into the same store one day and had a great sales person and the same time next day/week etc a dreadful one - certain people are made to work in customer services, some people shouldn't even think about it and are better suited to a desk job with no interuptions etc.

 

[jenna]

i had a women ask me to turn the music off in burtons because she had a right to shop noise free!! What was i supose to say? I just told her to ask some one else because i didnt know how to help her.

 

[SarahH]

i had a women ask me to turn the music off in burtons because she had a right to shop noise free!! What was i supose to say? I just told her to ask some one else because i didnt know how to help her.

Woah!! My friends dad is a taxi driver and he says he gets people coming in his car and turning on/off the heating, up or down his stereo! He even had one person flip a song on his CD as the customer said "the next song is better"

 

[Charlotte & Emily]

I work behind the deli counter at our sainsburys supermarket (on Maternity Leave ATM)
and some people i work with are really miserable and quite nasty to the customers.
Altougth some customers are HORRIBLE and treat us as if they actually pay our wages out their own pocket, and they always complain if you talk back lol and the stupid managers are always on their side even if they are in the wrong

 

[missac]

Minxy I completely agree with you! I cannot stand going into a shop and being served whilst the sales assisstant is having a converstation with their work colleague, it drives me mad and I don't think it is very professional. I was in tesco the other day and two of them were taking my money and moaning about their job to each other and were slagging off their boss. Also in boots the other day and they were having a conversation about eastenders or something. I know I probably sound really boring, and I don't begrudge people having fun at work, but I am not reallt interested in what men these people slept with over the weekend!!

 

[tracyM]

We live in a fairly close knit community and have very few chain stores. At most of the shops, the assistants are really friendly - it's not just a job to them, they enjoy working there, and you can tell. Go into a chainstore (we have Argos, Woollies, Boots & Superdrug) though and it's completely different - it's a job so they can get their pay cheque at the end of the month, lowly customers are wasting their time