Lazy - The dirtiest word in the English language

[ShootMePlease]

I can't tell you how many times I've been called this, either in person or in customer comments and surveys. The kicker is that these folks have barged up to me while I was helping another customer and demanded my attention to help them find something. I usually point in the direction the item is in and briefly describe the area it's in before returning to my original customer.

"Well, you could have walked me there and shown me !! LAZY !!"

"She pointed instead of showing me !! LAZY !!"

"What, walking too much trouble for you ? Man, you people are LAZY around here !!"

"I never did find what I was looking for, due to the fact that the young lady who helped me was too LAZY to stop helping someone else and help me "

These fuckheads expect the whole world to drop everything they're doing to help them, and help them exclusively. I can't stand when I'm interrupted by an impatient asshole while helping someone else. Go fuck yourselves, EW's, and look up the word LAZY. It's thrown around way too much, and I'm sure not correctly.

[Bandit]

Sounds about right. <sigh>

It's also a KILLER real R&B song

B

[Pixilated]

I hope management has just rolled their eyes and consigned these surveys to the shredder.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I hope management has just rolled their eyes and consigned these surveys to the shredder.

If the OP's management is anything like the management I used to suffer under, that won't happen.

Years ago, we used to get secret-shopped on that. At the very least we had to offer to walk the customer to the product. If they took you up on it, you had to do it, already with a customer or not. You were just hoping the mystery shopper would understand.

If you just pointed or gave directions, you failed that part of the secret shop and got a talking-to from your manager.

Nowadays there's no mystery shoppers to worry about but I still walk customers to items or at least offer to, just because it was drilled into my head at that time.

[XCashier]

At the very least we had to offer to walk the customer to the product. If they took you up on it, you had to do it, already with a customer or not.

That is such complete and utter bullshit. How do you determine which customer is more important than the other? What if you guess wrong? Someone's going to be POed, no matter what you do.

I got burned by a secret shopper for that very thing back at the Drug Store From Hell. I was on the register, ringing up a customer and answering questions from five other customers (because apparently nobody in my old town knew how to wait their turn ) and the SS came up through the crowd and asked me where the batteries were. "Aisle 18" I said, and went back to the customers I was already serving.

When the report came in, the SS did indeed indicate that I was serving all those other customers, but still dinged me for not dropping everything and walking them to the battery aisle! Despite the logical and physical impossibility of both ringing up customers and walking another one to the battery aisle, Boss used that as an excuse to let me go.

The store went under about a year later. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.

[Food Lady]

Xcashier, that makes me so mad! But I'm glad you got out of there. Seems like it's always the hard-working employees that get criticized.

[Draper Mel]

Of course, if the mystery shopper were the one you were already helping and you walked off with someone else, you'd get dinged on that too.

Instant cloning, just another superpower you should have to work in retail.

[MoonCat]

Why isn't there a reverse secret shopper program aimed at SC's? They could go around the store and count the number of customers who were throwing hissy fits, complaining about stupid things, making a mess, shoplifting, not minding their kids, etc., and award sympathy points for all the workers who have to put up with this crap.

[PepperElf]

These fuckheads expect the whole world to drop everything they're doing to help them, and help them exclusively. I can't stand when I'm interrupted by an impatient asshole while helping someone else. Go fuck yourselves, EW's, and look up the word LAZY. It's thrown around way too much, and I'm sure not correctly.

There's a letter at PFB that's pretty much like that. The LW wanted the employee to drop everyone to take her call... but didn't want them to handle any other customers when they were getting service.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That is such complete and utter bullshit. How do you determine which customer is more important than the other? What if you guess wrong? Someone's going to be POed, no matter what you do.

Doesn't matter; the program was probably set up to make the stores fail anyway.

It was an initiative rolled out by our last regime. Walking customers to items was one of only five things we were supposed to do. It was:

1. Greet the customer
2. Offer to help in a sincere manner
3. Offer to take the customer to the product (or walk them to it)
4. Offer further assistance
5. Thank the customer

If a store got 100% on its secret shops three months a row, it would have been given fifty $50 gift cards to distribute among the employees any way management chose.

There was no limit to how many people the secret shopper could approach, and the expectations were the same for all departments (meaning the secret shopper could go to somebody behind the pharmacy counter asking for light bulbs at the other end of the store, and that person would have to walk the customer over there if they chose).

I never heard of any store achieving this. And what company is going to give away $2500 in freebies to its employees anyway?

[EricKei]

How do you determine which customer is more important than the other?

Simple. The answer is always MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEEMEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! In other words, help whoever is the most entitled among the EW's, the whiniest, most likely to complain (note: this one is also likely to complain on behalf of the people s/he forced you stop leave behind in order to help this EW), most likely to call you "lazy", etc.

When the report came in, the SS did indeed indicate that I was serving all those other customers, but still dinged me for not dropping everything and walking them to the battery aisle!

Maybe it's just me, but I would be a lot more ticked at an employee for leaving their post and a pack of existing custys to help one person >_>

Doesn't matter; the program was probably set up to make the stores fail anyway.

Actually, in my experience, yes, that's exactly what they're for. They're a way for Corporate to maintain Control (tm) and ALWAYS have a paper trail so they can get rid of anyone they want, at any time. Thus, if, say, a District Manager takes a dislike to an ASM because the DM doesn't like the ASM's haircut or eye color or something, they can use this "paper trail" as "proof of incompetence" when firing them. No, it doesn't matter if they failed one Secret Shop session six years ago and passed fifty more, the bad review is on the permanent record...

1. Greet the customer
...
5. Thank the customer

Second verse, same as the first...GameStore edition. As with many SS's, failure on any one point is an automatic failure.

1. Greet the customer within a few seconds. Being on the phone or actively explaining something to an existing custy is not an excuse.
2. Offer to help.
3. Know exactly where every game is even if they don't know the actual title
4. Offer further assistance
5. Keep walls neat and in perfect alphabetical order, no XBOX games in the Wii section, etc (easier said than done when really busy)
6. Ask them if they have any tradeins today. Accept same, keep the back counter clear of tradeins (read: leave your post if need be to get them into the back). Test and immediately shrinkwrap any consoles. Oh, and don't take longe to do this entire transaction than what it would take to do a normal non-trade transaction.
6a. Make sure to get trade transactions over with quickly (they typically take forever, especially if they bring in like 30 discs), while still taking the time to verify that you are taking in working discs. We usually opted for the latter. We learned quickly not to believe people who had big circles on their discs' undersides and insisted that they worked "just fine at home"
7. Never leave your post without someone there to cover immediately (see prior command for the paradox)
8. Offer pre-orders/reserves, discount cards/subscriptions. Yes, even if they have already loudly told you that you'd better not offer same within the last ten seconds.
9. Thank the customer.

I never heard of any store achieving this. And what company is going to give away $2500 in freebies to its employees anyway?

None. It's an offer, not something they ever plan to actually DO. They might as well offer fifty $500 gift cards, it ain't gonna happen.

We never got gift cards. Our reward was not getting yelled at on the District conference calls, and not losing the right to "rent" free games.

[Kheldarson]

And what company is going to give away $2500 in freebies to its employees anyway?

My store does, actually. During store set-up I got nearly $400 in merchandise alone, and about a dozen or so others got equivalent merchandise prizes as well.

I work for a nice place now

I'm also grateful I don't have to deal with BTS at my new place either. I get to deal with Back to Hunting Season though *sigh*

[Krysalis]

1. Greet the customer within a few seconds. Being on the phone or actively explaining something to an existing custy is not an excuse.
2. Offer to help.
3. Know exactly where every game is even if they don't know the actual title
4. Offer further assistance
5. Keep walls neat and in perfect alphabetical order, no XBOX games in the Wii section, etc (easier said than done when really busy)
6. Ask them if they have any tradeins today. Accept same, keep the back counter clear of tradeins (read: leave your post if need be to get them into the back). Test and immediately shrinkwrap any consoles. Oh, and don't take longe to do this entire transaction than what it would take to do a normal non-trade transaction.
6a. Make sure to get trade transactions over with quickly (they typically take forever, especially if they bring in like 30 discs), while still taking the time to verify that you are taking in working discs. We usually opted for the latter. We learned quickly not to believe people who had big circles on their discs' undersides and insisted that they worked "just fine at home"
7. Never leave your post without someone there to cover immediately (see prior command for the paradox)
8. Offer pre-orders/reserves, discount cards/subscriptions. Yes, even if they have already loudly told you that you'd better not offer same within the last ten seconds.
9. Thank the customer..

Tell that to our Game Store. They follow that exact process, except it takes for. ever. to get out of, because they will just keep you at the register. I mean, on a day with two people in the line, it will take half an hour to clear both of them. O_o

ETA: No, not bashing workers, specifically. I remember when the same people worked at the Insano Game store here, and they were always swift, friendly, and warm. They're still the last two, but it seems to be that they will take all the time they've got to rope people into the specials and their card. I suspect management might have something to do with it...

[cinema guy]

The cinema does give a reasonable amount for the 'team fund' if mystery shops are passed. And also as incentives for cinemas scoring highest in the region.

But they make the targets progressively higher each year and cut down on the number of shops.

[Gizmo]

None. It's an offer, not something they ever plan to actually DO. They might as well offer fifty $500 gift cards, it ain't gonna happen.

Yeah, this reminds me of a prior boss. They'd had a standing scheme from the start of the department years before about how many calls each employee should make. Basically it went from "prepare your excuses for this" to "yeah, ok" and most people struggled to get into the "yeah, ok". We were always told we should be aiming between "yeah,ok" and "Wow" level and the top level promised a bottle of champagne to the employee who managed it.

Each week the department got emailed their call stats so they could see how hard they were working.

There were barely any reprimands or discussion about this (even if someone was failing to get 1 days worth of requirement in the entire week) until, for the first time in 5 years, I reached "Wow, have a bottle of champagne!" status.

Well my line manager knew I was taking meds and not drinking so asked the boss if she could change that out for a voucher instead. And therefore launched the discussion of "well, why should we give her extra for just doing her job?"

That week I think I'd done more calls and resolved more issues than 2-3 other people put together.