Decisions

Some people have a major problem with making decisions.

The other day a couple spent THREE HOURS in the store deciding whether to buy something. An associate was with them for well over an hour. Seventy-five percent of that time the associate just stood there while the people hemmed and hawed about buying.

Another day a family wanted to make a big purchase. I initially helped them. At first they just wanted to get some basic info, take some measurements, and then check a couple of other stores. Fine. They came back later that day (just before close) and spent an hour with both myself and another employee. We got out late that night, but with such a large purchase, I wasn't complaining. It's our job to help them, even if they stay late. It's also our job to load the rather large and heavy items into their truck. No problem.

The VERY NEXT DAY they returned the whole grouping of items, minus a box and the price tags. That is a problem. They exchanged it for a rather less expensive model. Their excuse? It was too big. Funny......then why did they bother measuring on their first trip? Also, the less expensive model was essentially the same size. If they had room for either of the rather large (and heavy) items, then the slight difference in size wouldn't make a difference.

So we unloaded the (did I say HEAVY?) items, returned them to the sales floor (where they later had to be repriced), helped them with the other set, and then loaded the new items into their truck.

!!!

Yet another day a woman came in to look at {items in a certain department}. Four different {licensed, very highly trained professionals} had told her essentially four different things so she wanted another opinion. From me?! A retail manager?! I showed her what we had, told her my opinion and what other people often did for the same problem, but that if the professionals, with their YEARS AND YEARS of education, couldn't come to a consensus and suggest something to help her, then I wasn't going to be able to help her any better than them.

Then the hemming and hawing began from her as she looked at different products. Finally I used one of my "I'm leaving" lines to escape from, essentially, just standing there while she tried to get me to guarantee that a particular product would solve her problem or otherwise give advice that I'm in no way qualified to give.

I know she wanted/expected me to continue standing there and was not pleased when I left. But my line was perfectly respectful and she obviously knew that she was wasting my time and if there had been any kind of legitimate reason for me to stay then she could have asked me to stay. She knew that. I could tell from her demeanor that she knew that. So she let me go. Grudgingly. She eventually bought one small item and left.