"I don't mean to be a pest..."

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

O RLY? Then why are you doing such a great job of it?

So here I am, schlepping a cart full of bedroom furniture for a carryout, when this woman practically jumps in front of it, forcing me to try and stop it as best I can.

And she drags me over to the framed mass-produced art and has me scan just about every single item in there so she can figure out what ones are priced at $12.88, and which ones aren't, because she wants the ones at $12.88.

And then she wants me to show her where the mirrors are. I take her over to them.

Now she wants light bulbs. I look for somebody else to hand this leech over to, but can't find anybody because all the other floor people are busy with customers of their own (Thanks corporate for barely increasing staffing for day 2 of our biggest sale of the year.) I usher her over to the light bulbs. She has me scan a bunch of them for prices. And now the front end is paging me, wondering where I am with that damn bedroom furniture because the customer is getting a tad antsy.

And now she's pointing to some candy pictured in our ad flyer and wants to know where that is. I point her in the general direction. I know this is hideously bad customer service, at least it is by corporate's definition, but I have somebody waiting on that carryout for fuck's sake.

Finally, she seems satisfied, thanks me, and says "I don't mean to be a pest."

WHY COULDN'T YOU NOT MEAN TO BE A PEST WHEN YOU SAW ME CLEARLY BUSY PUSHING A CART OF FURNITURE TO THE FRONT!!

Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to think of the customer as an interruption or an annoyance. But when you're loaded down with 46 things that have to be done ZOMG NOW and you're working your little fanny off to get them done, it's kinda hard to deliver A-1 customer service.

[lupo pazzesco]

Awww...poor Irv...

<Offers booze and pastries>

I HATE that line, kin to "I don't mean to bother you" and "I don't mean to sound rude"

The words following them are NEVER good, and completely bely the disclaimer statements. Yes, yes you DO mean to be it, you just think that by saying so in the first place, you are absolved for acting like a total twatwaffle.

[SG15Z]

Or "Just a quick question". Lies all lies!

[IvorTangrean]

Or "Just a quick question". Lies all lies!

It never matters if the question is quick, it matters how long the answer is.

[RootedPhoenix]

Why is it that she expected to have her own personal shopper when it was evident that you had other things to do? Like hauling furniture around?

If I bug somebody busy, I expect to hear aisle numbers, not to be personally escorted. Arg.

[flybye023]

I had a customer do that too only his line was "I'm not trying to be a jerk here..." I had to bite my tongue HARD not to blurt out "You mean it's natural talent?"

[taurinejunkie]

It's like the customers calling here "Hey, sorry to bother you, can you find a number for me please?" or whatever like that. Except the only thing that bothers me about these is that they're stupid enough to think I have something to do other than taking calls, and their apologies make the call longer.

On that topic (long call), not worth its own thread, but today I had a relay call from hell today at the beginning of the shift. Relay calls are normally very long, but on this one the customer simply could not understand that I needed the person's last name to look for them, making it way longer. It got so long in fact, that the first operator went on his break and was replaced in the middle of the call. I worked my jaw off trying to lower my average per call, but still ended up over target by some 10 seconds.

[zymry]

Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to think of the customer as an interruption or an annoyance. But when you're loaded down with 46 things that have to be done ZOMG NOW and you're working your little fanny off to get them done, it's kinda hard to deliver A-1 customer service.

My Store manager and I had a conversation about this at yearly evaluation time. Because I really do see most customers as an impediment to everything else corporate, and store standards says WE HAVE to do.

I realize without them we don't have a store and thus don't have a job. I also realize I have 200 movies or so in the last 2 hours that need checked in organized and put back, I have change to make, trips to the safe, windows that need cleaning, floors that need swept and mopped, walls that need wiped down, counters that need cleaned, etcetera ad infinitum. we need more hours available, and more people to work them. I think lots of places are in that boat. Given the economy of the globe ATM I don't see it getting better soon.

[Eric the Grey]

Awww...poor Irv...

<Offers booze and pasties>

Edited for my own amusement.

Hopefully, it'll give Irv a much needed laugh as well.



Eric the Grey

[Nyoibo]

If you feel the need to add a disclaimer before you do something you know you're being exactly what you're saying you aren't.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My Store manager and I had a conversation about this at yearly evaluation time. Because I really do see most customers as an impediment to everything else corporate, and store standards says WE HAVE to do.

I realize without them we don't have a store and thus don't have a job. I also realize I have 200 movies or so in the last 2 hours that need checked in organized and put back, I have change to make, trips to the safe, windows that need cleaning, floors that need swept and mopped, walls that need wiped down, counters that need cleaned, etcetera ad infinitum. we need more hours available, and more people to work them. I think lots of places are in that boat. Given the economy of the globe ATM I don't see it getting better soon.

I got news for you--it isn't the bad economy that makes stores cut staff. It's the corporate suits. They get big bonuses for keeping expenses down.

Even when the economy was better than it is now, perhaps quite significantly better, we were still operating on a skeleton crew.

Back when I started in 1998, we had lots of employees and any given time. Just about every register was open and staffed on weekends, there were at least 3 people on the floor in hardlines at any time, and there were always people in the backroom pulling merchandise, doing carryouts, straightening stuff, and so forth.

And we had an army to unload and fill trucks. 7-8 people to unload the truck, and at least 10 people to fill and backstock all the freight.

Some of the cuts over the years might have been due to the economy in part, but once it got better those people we used to have never came back.

Edited for my own amusement.

Hopefully, it'll give Irv a much needed laugh as well.

It did. Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Thanks for that.

[friendofjimmyk]

Or "Just a quick question". Lies all lies!

OH! GAH! That's a doozy right there...eve if the answer is quick...it usually leads to more questions...and then, 20 minutes has gone by and your behind in work.

[Dips]

It sounds like your managers don't allow you to tell the buttinskis that you'll be right with them after you've taken care of the carryout customer you're currently helping.

And no, you did not deliver poor customer service at all. You were trying to help two customers in two parts of the store at the same time. You did your best, but until you can clone yourself, you're going to have to pick one customer over another. The carryout customer was first, so you ended up having to politely ditch the buttinski. What else could you do?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It's not really that management doesn't allow us to pass these people off to somebody else. It's that the corporate culture, as determined by the suits, discourages it.

We used to have secret shoppers that would go around testing stores on how well they gave customer service the way the suits wanted it. Two of the requirements are that you walk the customer to each item they want, and keep offering assistance until the customer lets you know they've been satisfied. And one of their tricks was to approach people who were doing carryouts, to make sure we met all the requirements all of the time, not just when it was most convenient for us.

Or more likely it was to keep scores down so the secret shoppers could justify their need or to keep corporate from dishing out the lavish rewards they promised if a store could be 100% on its secret shops for 3 straight months. If you did get shopped, and scored less than 100%, your manager would be sure to let you know about it.

We don't have the secret shoppers to worry about anymore, but they could always come back if corporate decides we need to improve our customer service some more.

[SG15Z]

It never matters if the question is quick, it matters how long the answer is.

Damn you and your semantics!