Am I Making A Fuss About Nothing? Opinions Please.

stargirl90

Working in retail myself (not a supermarket thankfully), I think people need to cut supermarket staff some slack. Like some people have already mentioned on here, this lad was probably a temp on minimum wage, in the middle of 3 jobs at once, and would have already had to deal with all manner of unpleasant people with it being Xmas Eve. I'm bright and cheery in my work 95% of the time, but occasionally that slips, like when I've wasted my positive energy on a customer that won't even look me in the eyes or offer a thank-you. This guy could have been more polite, but he also could have been far ruder, and I've experienced far ruder.

I witnessed something that disgusted me in Asda the other day - the place was packed and an old couple were fumbling around on the self-service tills, there was one poor worker to 8 tills running around between them all like a headless chicken and this old man shouted 'OI!' at her and snapped his fingers. What happened to 'Excuse me'?!?! I wanted to say something but I bit my tongue, time of year and all that! :P

Flyboy152

rustyboy21 wrote: »

What you fail to realise is that Respect is a 2 way street, my friend

You are not paying the employees wages, the supermarket is.

Are all your posts so rude?

Blobby8_2

Flyboy152 wrote: »

" Regarding customers to be "chavvy scum" etc. is not what their employers pay them to do. That is my description, I do not work in a supermarket.
Customers on the whole do not expect personal service, but perhaps a little respect, fairness and courtesy wouldn't go amiss.

On the whole no, but some do. I have very rarely been treated without respect, fairness or courtesy in a supermarket.

DCFC79

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The problem is that the supermarket and other retail outlets themselves seem to actively discourage such behaviour from their customers. The people at customer services often behave indifferently, they rarely pass on any praise and there is no clear mechanism for customers to bring this to the attention of management.

I went to the customer services desk and as they were quite busy dealing with returns, I asked to speak to the manager. The manager took nearly ten minutes to get there (I don't know what he was doing during that time, but I could see him in the back office, behind the service desk, reading something). I described my experience to him, but his response, to say the least, shocked me. He said that he did not have the time to listen to customers telling him how well his staff were performing and would have preferred that I had written in. I asked about what address I such direct my praise to, but his reply was even more shocking, "I have no idea," he said.

1 of my previous jobs we had a pinboard with customers thanks for a certain colleague doing so and so(all good mind) and customers would go to the front desk to say such and such colleague was ever so good as similar thing happened to me as i was given a shining star for very good customer service,

im surprised at the response from the manager, i thoguht he would have wanted to know how well 1 of his staff did

Flyboy152

DCFC79 wrote: »

1 of my previous jobs we had a pinboard with customers thanks for a certain colleague doing so and so(all good mind) and customers would go to the front desk to say such and such colleague was ever so good as similar thing happened to me as i was given a shining star for very good customer service,

That sounds like an excellent way to reward good service.

im surprised at the response from the manager, i thoguht he would have wanted to know how well 1 of his staff did

I was dumbfounded by his attitude as well as saddened. The assistant deserved to be recognised for efforts to promote the business to customers, increasing turnover and profits.

rustyboy21

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Are all your posts so rude?

Pot calling a kettle black springs to mind here !

Malory

I think that the OP's response was OTT, and I don't think a worker should have to escort the customer to the shelf. However, I do think the "I don't know" response was unacceptable. If the worker didn't know where the item was, he should have asked someone else who worked there.

I'm curious how these retail workers are trained, and what they are told that their jobs entail.

I worked in supermarkets, years ago, in the US, and I was always told that my number one priority was pleasing the customers. If I was stocking shelves and a customer needed something, I stopped stocking the shelves and helped the customer. If I was stocking shelves and there were long queues and empty tills, I took over a till until the queues cleared up a bit so the customers didn't have to wait too long to pay for their things. From my first day I was always told that pleasing the customer comes first - before putting cans of beans on the shelf, so I'm surprised by the posters who suggested that worker might be too busy to help, when I was taught that "helping" is the retail worker's most important job.

Flyboy152

rustyboy21 wrote: »

Pot calling a kettle black springs to mind here !

Is it really necessary to get into, "who is ruder?"

Flyboy152

Malory wrote: »

I think that the OP's response was OTT, and I don't think a worker should have to escort the customer to the shelf. However, I do think the "I don't know" response was unacceptable. If the worker didn't know where the item was, he should have asked someone else who worked there.

I'm curious how these retail workers are trained, and what they are told that their jobs entail.

I worked in supermarkets, years ago, in the US, and I was always told that my number one priority was pleasing the customers. If I was stocking shelves and a customer needed something, I stopped stocking the shelves and helped the customer. If I was stocking shelves and there were long queues and empty tills, I took over a till until the queues cleared up a bit so the customers didn't have to wait too long to pay for their things. From my first day I was always told that pleasing the customer comes first - before putting cans of beans on the shelf, so I'm surprised by the posters who suggested that worker might be too busy to help, when I was taught that "helping" is the retail worker's most important job.

But unless poor service is brought to the management's attention, how will service be improved in the future?

System

I was standing in Primark once and this woman asked me where the shoes were. I said I didn't know and she got a bit shirty with me as she said I should know where they were, so i told her to "go away". She said she was going to make a complaint to the manager about my attitude. That would have been fine but I didn't actually work in Primark I had just popped in with a friend for 5 minutes as they wanted some flip flops. Because I was wearing a shirt and tie with my work badge on she assumed I worked their. So the morale of the story is when you are complaining about a member of staff make sure they actually work in the shop!