Am I sucky not to hand-hold?

[RammsteinGirl]

Just wanted your opinion. I was straightening ladieswear today before my shift ended at Kmart, and I had a customer come up to me right in the ladieswear department and ask me where the ladies' regular-sized sweatpants were.

Well, they're all in the same small area.. I don't understand why anyone would have to ask an employee, because there's 4 or 5 racks of sweatpants right in that general area - all one would have to do is look around. I pointed to several racks that were within eyeshot and said that they were scattered around on various racks in this small area. The customer wasn't sucky.. she thanked me, but had a strange look on her face, which prompted me to wonder afterwards if I should have guided her to each rack and said "Now here are some Route 66 sweatpants, here's some Athletech ones.." etc.

I certainly can't pick pants out for them, as clothes shopping is a really personal thing. So am I a SE (Sucky Employee) or not? I mean, it's not an upscale department store like Macy's or Marshall Field's where they may have employees assisting you with your shopping constantly.. it's Kmart, a discount retailer.

[Broomjockey]

Even the "low-end" stores usually require employees to show enquiring customers to where the item in question is, but if your stores doesn't have that policy, then technically no, you're not a sucky employee.

I do think since you were just doing straightening, it would have been nice to go over and point out each rack specifically, just a "you might find what you're looking for here, here, or here" thing.

[Saydrah]

I would appreciate just being pointed in the right direction, rather than having someone hovering over me! I hate it when people follow me as I shop and peek at what I'm looking at. Overenthusiastic service can be just as sucky as no service at all- however, it might have been nice to lead her over to the first rack before pointing out a few others and returning to your straightening, just to make sure she knows you WERE willing to leave your straightening for a moment to help her.

[RammsteinGirl]

Well, we were only between 10-20 feet from the racks, and I pointed to those racks specifically, though I did not walk over to each rack with her. It's not like they were halfway across the store, we were right in the area and could see all of the racks from where we were standing. And it was several racks of various sweatpants, not just one item. And ALL of the regular-sized ladies' sweatpants are localized to this 20 ft. radius of an area and no where else in the store. And I wasn't straightening at the time because I had been helping another customer. I just assumed the customer could see the racks and would get the idea. They were all in clear view, I just think the customer didn't look very hard. If she would've asked for a SPECIFIC brand of sweatpants I would have looked until I found the specific rack they were on, but she just asked for sweatpants.

And yeah, I feel really uncomfortable hovering over customers, as I know that annoys me when I'm shopping. But maybe I was totally wrong for not walking her to each and every rack, idk. Yes, we are supposed to walk the customer to the item, and I would have if we had been further than where we were. But since clothes shopping, especially for females, is a really personal thing (we're picky!) I figured it would be better to just show her the area they were in and leave her alone. I'm probably thinking too deeply into this though, and maybe she wasn't bothered at all. It's hard sometimes to tell the level of service and attention customers want unless they voice it, simply because they're complete strangers.

[Shabo]

I think it depends on the store's policy. When I was working at the pet store, the policy was to stop what you were doing and show the customer where the product was. I would usually walk the person over, show them what they had asked for if it was something specific, ask if they needed help with anything else or had any questions, and if not, I would go back to what I was doing. Usually, if someone was looking for a type of product, they would have questions about brands and such, but if they were looking for a specific thing, they would be ok once they knew where it was.

[NateTheChops]

I don't think you were being sucky as such.

I mean, where I work I sometimes have to choose between telling a customer where the product is and showing it to them. If I think they can manage well enough on their own then I just tell them and go back to what I'm doing. If I don't know for certain (and sometimes I don't) or if the customer appears to get confused by small directions (we get quite a few people like that) then I take them there and show them where it is.

It depends on what I'm actually doing and how important it is that I get it done quickly. So long as I'm polite to the customer there's rarely a problem.