Direction Fee!

[Cyanocobalamin]

To thwart those looking for free personal shoppers, I would like to propose this direction fee that works on an inverse scale. For example if the item a customer wants is on the opposite end of the store, the cost for me to point him/her in the direction if it will be $10. $50 if the item is a few steps away, and $100 if it is directly in front of the customer's face.

Or maybe the locations of the first two items are free, and 3 or more will be $20 per item. Of course this is payable in advance, in cash only You can say all proceeds are donated to the -your last name- Foundation, which helps out people with basic needs like food, rent, etc. {ie, us retail slaves}

Example conversation:
Customer: Excuse me, where can I find [items]?
You: I can tell you but the cost will be $200 ca$h, please.
Customer:
You: However, proceeds are donated to the John and Jane Doe Foundation.
Customer: Oh OK -forks over dough-
You: [Items] are right in front of you and also on the next aisle.
Customer: thanks

[Becks]

What a good idea!!!!!!!!

I wonder how long we could get away with it...

[Ree]

Umm...isn't helping customers part of your job?

They shouldn't have to ask where stuff is if you are doing what you're paid to do.

*Ree really does not get the younger generation of customer service workers.

[ArenaBoy]

Umm...isn't helping customers part of your job?

They shouldn't have to ask where stuff is if you are doing what you're paid to do.

*Ree really does not get the younger generation of customer service workers.

If the customers ask us where an item is and it happens to be in front of them, then it's fine with me. Don't forget there is always that one person who makes you their slave and you get to pick up their entire shopping list for them. We should also change some aspect of the rules of this. If a customer bugs us while it's obvious that we're busy for something on the other end then we charge them even more.

Yes, we are supposed to help customers but the ones who don't bother looking or are oblivious to everything are the ones who need to be charged.

[Crosshair]

I have customers ask me all the time where stuff is. I give them dirrections and they are on their way. I don't see what we are supposed to charge them for exactly?

[Kika]

I wish I had thought of that a few months ago.

I was helping a customer, and a woman walks directly in front of the customer I was talking to, hands me a list and tells me she needs everything on it and will be waiting for me at the register. (Naturally, she was in "a huge rush.")

I was too dumbfounded to do much of anything, but I wish I'd thought of telling her I had a fee for personal shopping services!

I agree with Ree that it's absolutely my job to tell customers where things are, and since my store isn't a grocery/department store, I'm even willing to walk them to the product they're looking for. Heck, if they forget something, and then remember at the register, I'll usually run and get it for them to speed up the process. No argument from me there.

But unless there's some kind of physical issue, I don't think we should have to run around a store filling a list while the customer waits. Especially when they interrupt you helping someone else to give you said list.

[One-Fang]

If the product isn't directly in front of the customer, then the question is totally legitimate. Even if it is, we've all had brain farts before, right? How about a personal shopper fee of $5 per item when they make you go get stuff for them, like Kika's story, instead?

[Cyanocobalamin]

I shall clarify.

1) My idea stemmed from the fact that my store is situated in a well to do town, and thus many customers are needier in the "I'm rich, and therefore better than you" way.
2) I have accepted that I will never be paid enough and of course I wish I could make money 'under the table' and not have tax karma come back and me.
3) Yes, it is in my job requirements to tell someone where something is and offer to walk them to it, but I'm just tired of having people not willing to wait when I am obviously helping someone ahead of them.

Actually in my mind, I would charge $75 an hour for personal shopping service, and assembly of any furniture item for $1 a pound. (Bookcases can weigh up to 80 pounds!) Feel free to me on that. I never turn down free food lol! The reality is I can't say that out loud at work because it isn't a real, official, offered service.

[Barefootgirl]

Thats rather a different issue, then. Certainly if someone hands you a list and expects you to run about fetching things for them, that's ridiculous, and people like that deserve to be laughed at. However, if someone simply asks you where something is, even if its something that's actually right in front of them, it is actually one's job to take that person to the item/tell them where it is.

Of course, if people are barging in and demanding help when you are already helping another customer, you simply have to turn your sweetest look and smile on them and say "Sorry, i am helping this lady right now. If you would care to wait just a moment, I would be pleased to help you as soon as I am free". Its all you have to say. Dead easy, and its always worked for me.

[Kika]

Of course, if people are barging in and demanding help when you are already helping another customer, you simply have to turn your sweetest look and smile on them and say "Sorry, i am helping this lady right now. If you would care to wait just a moment, I would be pleased to help you as soon as I am free". Its all you have to say. Dead easy, and its always worked for me.

I tried that with the woman in my story, but she just shoved the list into my apron pocket, repeated about the huge rush she was in, and walked off.

Luckily, my manager saw the whole thing, and pulled the list from my pocket, and filled it herself.

And like Cyanocobalamin, my mall is in a well-to-do area, so we get a lot of the "better than you" attitudes. And I have a feeling that the woman did that before, because my manager just sighed and filled the list for her.

[Jester]

Thats rather a different issue, then. Certainly if someone hands you a list and expects you to run about fetching things for them, that's ridiculous, and people like that deserve to be laughed at.

It seems you should all start laughing at me.

Allow me to explain.

Several years ago, as my older sister's wedding was approaching, I was in the middle of traveling around the country. Because I could.

But, being the good brother, I wanted to get Sis and BiL a good present. So, I checked their registry at Big Houseware Chain, and decided I would give them a category. Not one item from any one category, but everything in the category. Nothing was that expensive in said category, nothing had yet been purchased (I was shopping early), and I thought it would be nice and efficient, not to mention pretty damn cool, just to wipe out one category all by my lonesome. I DID say I was a good brother, didn't?

There were two problems I faced: I was not very familiar with said items. I was also traveling the country, living out of the old Jestermobile. At this time in my travels, I was on the opposite coast from where they lived and where the wedding would be, and I did not want to haul all this stuff with me. I wanted it shipped directly to Sis and BiL. And I had to do it directly in a store, as at the time I had no credit card.

So, I went into the local Seattle area Big Houseware Chain store. I waited patiently for one of their associates to be free. When one was, I introduced myself, explained the situation, showed him the regsitry, and said, "Look. I am an idiot with this stuff. You, however, work here, and are probably more familiar with it all than I am. I am hoping you could actually gather this entire category, as much as possible, knock if off the registry, let me pay for it here, and ship it directly to Sis and BiL on the East Coast."

He looked at me to see if I was serious. I was smiling...but I was dead serious. Bless that man, he did it, too! With a smile, no less. THAT is customer service. (And boy, were Sis and BiL surprised when they opened up THAT package!) I don't think I was asking too much in this instance, and unlike the SC of the OP, I was not rude, disruptive, whiney, or self-involved. Had the stuff been things I was more familiar with, I would not have bothered an associate at all until I was ready to pay and have them ship it. But the associate was so cool, got almost everything (a couple things were out of stock or unavailable), and we got along great. He kind of treated it like a challenge, something different in his day. The fact that I was my typically charming self, and not being an asshat as so many of these people are probably helped, I am guessing.

What do y'all think?

[Slave to the Phone]

I don't think I was asking too much in this instance, and unlike the SC of the OP, I was not rude, disruptive, whiney, or self-involved. Had the stuff been things I was more familiar with, I would not have bothered an associate at all until I was ready to pay and have them ship it. But the associate was so cool, got almost everything (a couple things were out of stock or unavailable), and we got along great. He kind of treated it like a challenge, something different in his day. The fact that I was my typically charming self, and not being an asshat as so many of these people are probably helped, I am guessing.

What do y'all think?

I think I'd have had a great time with you. Many reasons come to mind:

1. You had a list with actual items sold at the store.
2. You were cheerful and helpful.
3. You helped look (or is that covered in the cheerful/helpful part?)
4. You didn't just fling your list at the associate and snarl "get me what they want" without any qualifiers.
5. The fact that I was my typically charming self
5.b that just goes without saying

[Kika]

Jester, for all that I hated that lady with her list in my above post, I've had guys come in with a list (or my favorite one, a huge bag full of almost-empty products), and wait their turn, and ask for help finding all the items. They were and continue to be my favorite customers.

When people are nice about the whole thing, it's great fun and a personal challenge to fill a list, like the experience your sales associate had with you.

Come visit me with your list anytime!

[Lehk]

i would have finished helping the first customer, then filled the order with the most expensive variety of each item

if someone is rich enough to be THAT much better than me then surely they would have no problem paying $9 for 12oz of hand picked organic peanut butter, $15 for mustard oil, $6 for organically produced pasta sauce, $4 for organic pasta, and $7 for super plus premium make your d**k bigger brand milk

[chainedbarista]

i don't mind helping, i wouldn't even mind getting things, as long as they:

a) had a list handy, and not vague descriptions
b) was actually able to do so (sometimes, we have only two people available at a given time, so 'personal help' has to be short and sweet when this occurs)
c) are nice about it
d) don't treat me as if i am something nasty they just stepped in and are their personal slave...

help is one thing, being treated like a whipping post/slave is quite another...