How to Handle Poor Service

The following is in response to Customer Service: WWMAD (What Would the More Assertive Do)?

The question was,

What would you do? How do you handle bad service?

I'd say, take it to the manager, then their manager, then the owner or corporate office if necessary. But as a retail manager myself, let me say that either you've forgotten your customer service days, or things have really changed since you worked behind the counter. I've worked customer service for 5 years, and in even that short time period customers are getting more demanding and just plain rude. Customers think the world revolves around them; they think that they "deserve" a discount for being old or because they had to wait 2 seconds. I've been at a computer with my "closed" sign up, obviously on the phone with a computer repair company, trying to fix our main terminal, and customers (MORE THAN ONE) will come up and ask, "Are you open?" DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M OPEN?! I was not "fiddling" around with the computer (like in scenario #4). Managers have more important things to do than "fiddle" all day. I was trying to fix it so that the other computers worked faster and took credit cards again!

1. In the first scenario, unless it was an emergency, there was no excuse for the behavior. I agree with your analysis.

2. In the second scenario, possible reasons for your frustrations: stores are working with an increasingly limited number of employees/hours. The company head wants more profits, customers want low(er) prices, employees want more money. This means fewer employees/hours. It's sometimes hard to predict when people are going to shop, thus sometimes there are plenty of employees and others not nearly enough. I would love to have every register staffed with cashiers at all times, but most of them would sit idly for most of the day. Instead, I have one or two cashiers scheduled, with others as backup if it gets busy. However, if the backups are helping customers when it gets busy, then I'm sorry, I don't have any more employees to make the lines any shorter. If you want to get in and out quickly, don't shop at lunchtime or from 5~7. Shop at less busy times of the day. And no, I can't schedule extra employees for just those time periods. Who wants to come in to work for just 2~3 hours?

The employee who was dusting: I frequently start new employees on the easiest tasks and then move them to harder tasks as they show their competence. I have other employees that despite many years with the company, ARE NOT CAPABLE of running a cash register. The employee developing film may have had a deadline to have the pictures finished (one hour photo, perhaps?). The manager might have been closing the register down and making sure the money was accurate before opening it with a new cashier. Or he might have been trying to fix a problem on it.

Lying to a customer about having to take a break? Why? For employees under 18, there are strict rules about when whey must take breaks. Otherwise the company gets a fine of $10,000 PER OCCURRENCE. For those over 18, you're right, they might have been working for 7 straight hours. But why lie?

3. Making up your own price for an item? The 16-year-old cashier is qualified to do this in what world?! How about inventory control? The price isn't what matters, it's the 10 digit item number that matters, so the computer knows what to order more of. Ordering is rarely done by hand these days. Twenty years ago, maybe, but not today. What would stop the cashier from making up prices for their family and friends? "That $200 sofa doesn't look that well-made, so I'll charge you $5 for it."

The manager may have been doing something that kept him from coming to the front. Again, the world does not revolve around you. When paged I get to the front as soon as possible. But if I'm helping another customer at the time, I can't completely abandon them. Or if I've got the mouse cornered that we've been trying to trap for months, I'm not going to stop and let it ruin another couple of thousand dollars of merchandise. Stuff happens. You don't know why that manager didn't come to the front right away.

4. Again, predicting customer behavior is IMPOSSIBLE. One week you might sell 100 of an item, the next week 5. We do our best to keep the proper number of items in stock, but working with a limited amount of space in which to store stuff, if we run out, TOO BAD. Come back another day, or find another store with the item in stock.

Of course, the most obvious answer to your question would be, "Shop somewhere else." I have customers who come in and find something to complain about EVERY TIME. Some people are never going to be happy. I'm not saying you're like that because you had some legitimate complaints, but you didn't seem very understanding of things that might have been happening behind the scenes. If you feel the service is that bad, then don't shop there. You'll be happier, and the employees might be happier, too.