Another end of shift ruined

[Food Lady]

All this does is make it worse. You KNOW these people will assume they can take advantage of too much familiarity by saying things like, "But you KNOW me, you can (insert favor, rule-breaker request here) for me! And if you don't, they will complain about that! If you DO, they will expect more and then management will find out and write you up. It's a losing situation either way.

So much this. One of the managers told me that my coworkers who are chummy with the mall walkers have told them stuff the customers shouldn't know, stuff that could get my coworkers fired. And I've already caught some of them ordering a drink and getting a more expensive one. (Our drink machines are pay first and then get your own--not my choice, for sure).

[rose_metal_nz]

<glum> I always try to chat & build a rapport with my local shops, so long as I'm not holding up the line or anything </glum> Is this necessarily a bad thing?

[dragon_wings]

I do the small talk thing, only cause my mom was an expert at it and a good chunk of her skills were passed on to me.
But with my regulars I'll ask them how they're doing, inquire about their families.

[Amusement Gal]

For me, I DO a lot of the small talk and "Ooh, you got that, that's nice...", stuff to pretty much every single guest. I get compliments on being super nice and patient, and talkative, and I just shrug. Because I'm also faking it! I'm just going through a mental script that I made myself, and talking about the same things every once in a while. It gets very tiring, too. Sometimes I wish I could get away with saying nothing and just doing my job, but I'm so used to how I do it now, it's pretty hard to break from the mold. It's just funny how something considered so 'personal', is actually far from it once you're forced to do it. Now if you hear me talking even NICER than how I usually talk, then it's time to run...

[Food Lady]

I do the same thing when I am cashiering, but the cafe customers in the morning don't get that because the bulk of my food prep is during the time they're there, and also, how do I talk about their purchase? It's a 79-cent cup of coffee.

[XCashier]

i really think policies like that is a no-win situation. do your job efficiently and quickly and you get complaints about not being friendly, be friendly and chat with customers and you get complaints about not working fast enough.

Agreed. As a customer, I don't want to be greeted with stony silence, but I also don't want to be asked a zillion questions, half of which are not really any stranger's business.

As a cashier, I usually say, "Hello, did you find everything you needed?...Any coupons?...Okay, your total is $x.xx...thank you and have a good day!" Polite and friendly, without getting too familiar. My managers have seen me ring up customers, they know my routine and they're okay with it. If some thin-skinned goober whines that I'm "not friendly enough", they know it's BS.

[veniteangeli]

When I was a cashier, I HATED screaming children, so I used to sing to them to shut them up - of course, this netted me a pretty large under-5 fan club, so I got a lot of frazzled mothers bringing their kids to my line. But the kids loved me, and I loved them, so I didn't mind it - and my bosses loved it because the frazzled mothers loved it.

That said, my rapport was with the eenie weenie kids, not with the mothers, so I wasn't making a lot of real conversation! Just singing kids songs and giving out cuddles to a few select babies and toddlers that I'd formed particular attachments with!

[b2addm]

... Because I'm also faking it! I'm just going through a mental script that I made myself, and talking about the same things every once in a while. It gets very tiring, too.

Ditto this. People have actually said to me that I must have a really happy life because I'm always so happy and cheerful. Truth is, at work I'm often miserable because I despise the company of the customers. But I must fake it pretty well. Of course they're so stupid and self involved it may have nothing to do with my acting skills.

[veniteangeli]

People have actually said to me that I must have a really happy life because I'm always so happy and cheerful. Truth is, at work I'm often miserable because I despise the company of the customers. But I must fake it pretty well. Of course they're so stupid and self involved it may have nothing to do with my acting skills.

This. SO HARD. This sounds EXACTLY like how I feel about my current customers.

[Mr Hero]

It's a policy at my store that we have to initiate and maintain rapport with our customers. This means that "Hi, how are you today?" isn't enough, nor are comments about the weather or asking if they found everything they were looking for. Initiating and maintaining rapport means asking them questions about the things they are buying.

I don't want to imagine the kind of rapport management expects you to build if the customer is buying condoms.

[Jester]

I agree with the premise of this, that retail employees should not be required to build a rapport with their customers, despite the fact that I do just that.

But I'm a BARTENDER. It's my JOB to do so. Not company policy, mind you, but just the nature of the job itself. Which doesn't happen as much when one is waiting tables--the dynamics are completely different--but more often than not, a bartender is expected to engage with their customers in conversation, and I do.

Unless, of course, I am balls to the wall busy. Then I am as pleasant and polite as I can be as I FLY around the bar getting everyone's drinks, getting their food orders, clearing their plates, wiping the bar, ringing stuff in, ringing customers out, making drinks for the servers, etc., etc., etc.

And yes, I have had people complain during just such a time. A while back, one older couple, complained to the management that I wasn't as engaging and humorous as I was normally, and they were mad about it. Ignoring the fact that the bar was packed and I was the only bartender on, and I was doing everything I could to keep my head above water. But apparently I was supposed to stop everything I was doing, ignore all my other customers and my servers, just to tell an amusing anecdote to these pinheads. (I have cool management, so they smiled and nodded at the guests, and then ignored the complaint completely, knowing full well what had happened.)

So yeah....I feel your pain.

I think it was about the same time somebody (or a multitude of somebodys) decided people shouldn't address their bosses by Mr./Mrs./Ms. or anything similar -- we must all be on a first-name basis and be CHUMMY!

To be totally fair, I rather prefer calling my boss by their first name, though I often call them simply "Boss," but that's my own personal preference. (As in, "Hey, what's up, Boss?") Of course, I work in a bar, not an office, and I would really hate to be referring to my boss, who is even more casual than I am (big bearded tattooed guy) as "Mr. Gallo."

Seriously..who goes shopping to chat? I want to get in, get out, and forget the trip ever happened!

Ah, but these are not shoppers, not in the truest sense. These are MALL WALKERS. People who buy things only to justify their presence in the mall at all, who stroll up and down in the mall for exercise, socializing, and because they are so lame they really have nothing else to do with their lives. Usually old people, but I won't blame it on age, as my parents are 76 and 80, and have never felt the need to mall walk, or do anything at a mall but, you know, BUY SHIT.

As I've mentioned many times before, my parents are cool as shit.

...how do I talk about their purchase? It's a 79-cent cup of coffee.

FOOD LADY: "How's your coffee?"
CUSTOMER: "Good."
FOOD LADY: "Cool."

That's about it.

I HATED screaming children, so I used to sing to them to shut them up...

That said, my rapport was with the eenie weenie kids, not with the mothers...

Trust me, you DID have a rapport with the mothers. Maybe not a conversational one, but you were able to calm and silence their children, and that made you their HERO. Not all rapports are verbal, and I would bet quite a large chunk of change that you had a nonverbal rapport with the mothers.

Truth is, at work I'm often miserable because I despise the company of the customers. But I must fake it pretty well.

This is a weird thing for me. Because there have been many times I went into work in a bad mood, but being a server, I had to pretend to be in a good mood....and apparently I'm so good at it that, more often than not, my fake good mood would cause me to actually get into a REAL good mood. Not always, but far more often than not.

And while I AM a happy person now, I wasn't always, so that makes that even more curious.

I don't want to imagine the kind of rapport management expects you to build if the customer is buying condoms.

MR HERO: "So, Dave, how were those condoms you bought last week?"
CUSTOMER: "Great! Fucked the old lady three times without any of them breaking. And that was just Saturday! You should have seen what happened Sund-="
MR HERO: "Glad you enjoyed them!"

[downforit2008]

Reminds me of this one time I clocked in for my shift a year ago. A fellow coworker of mine was getting off work then and one of my coworkers and I high-fived him as a farewell and told him to go home and take it easy.

Some stupid bullshit customer, as it turns out, went crying and whining to my supervisor about how "the both of us were HARASSING the other coworker and trying to pick a fight with him." When our supervisor confronted us with this, we both started laughing our heads off until we were rolling in tears. There WAS no harassment, there WAS no picking fights. This dumb customer apparently doesn't know shit about how to translate a high-five and farewells in their communication.

The supervisor realized this and she laughed with us as well.
Stupid customer...GO HOME!!!

[blas]

Seriously, if you're being hounded about your "Bad attitude" and "scouly face" on an almost daily basis, it sounds like someone really has it in for you.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This reminds me of something on the bulletin board at the swamp during this last Christmas shopping season: "We hire smiles!"

Well, I suppose we do. Hiring work ethic and competence, on the other hand....

[blas]

From the stories you've told, Irv, they aren't the healthiest or attractive of smiles, either.