Managing Conflict

Today this guy was three steps through the door and asked for help with a problem he was having. My boss politely yet somewhat bluntly told him that what he planned on doing wouldn't work. Out of the blue he started yelling at her that she couldn't tell him what he could and couldn't do, that this was ridiculous, we were supposed to help him, blah, blah, blah. He made quite a scene.

I tried to help by phrasing it a little differently, basically saying that we were trying to save him time and money because in our experience, what he wanted to try wouldn't work. That helped only slightly. By that point it was clear that while he didn't appear to be drunk, there was definitely some type of drug involved.

Another employee came up and asked if she could help him. He said, "I'm about ready to walk out because of HER" (as he pointed to my boss). Both she and I were about ready to say, "Go ahead," but we restrained ourselves. The employee helped him, showing him one thing that MIGHT help him do what he wanted to do. Then again, it might not. I give it a 5-10% chance of working.

Since he was so upset with the boss, she went off the sales floor until he was gone. It was totally for her safety! I stayed in the front out of his sight yet where I could see the register so that if there were any further problems I could intervene. He hassled the cashier a little, but nothing bad. He paid and left.

Afterwards the boss, always more uptight that she needs to be, was worried that he might report her to the corporate office. I reassured her that the guy was so out of it he probably wouldn't remember what happened. In addition, TWO of her employees saw the whole thing and agreed that she did nothing wrong. Other customers in the store were sympathizing with us about how unreasonable the man was, and that we were correct that what he wants to do WON'T WORK.

Rude and Demanding Customers

The customers were SO DEMANDING today! I thought I'd lose my mind. We were also about twice as busy as normal, which meant we had nowhere near the number of staff that we should have had if I had my mind-reading skills practiced up on how many customers to expect.

It's amazing how impatient and un-understanding people are. It was obvious there were a hundred customers in the store. It was obvious EVERY SINGLE employee was helping someone. Yet people still acted all put-out that they have to wait. For even one minute.

One older woman, AS I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF EXPLAINING SOMETHING TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER, came up and asked if we had a certain item. "I'll be with you as soon as I'm through with this lady." "But I just want to know if you have more of these." DO I LOOK LIKE I HAVE MY BRAIN LINKED TO OUR COMPUTER INVENTORY SYSTEM?? "No, what we have are out." (We might have had more somewhere else, but if I had told her that, then she probably would have insisted that I "just check real quick" even though I was helping someone else FIRST.

Several times people interrupted with "quick questions," etc. My rule is, "First come, first served." If you have a problem with that, then you're an idiot and don't deserve my help. Great customer service, yeah, I know. But why should I stop helping a customer who's being reasonable, polite, and learning valuable info from me just before spending a couple of hundred dollars to help a rude, demanding, idiot who may or may not buy anything at all??

Regional Manager Visits

My crew is good most of the time. However, when the regional manager is coming, they are GREAT. Each time we prepare for a visit, I am impressed with my staff. They do the extra work and stay late with no complaints. They know how important the visits are--too many bad ones and my job is at risk; a really good one means a better paycheck for me.

We keep the store looking pretty good all the time, but the company has some procedures that are unrealistic. Since we know ahead of time when the regional manager is coming, we do those unrealistic things just before she comes and while she's here. When she's gone, back to the normal way of doing things. She doesn't have to know everything!

Free Samples

We regularly give free samples of products to try to get people to try our brands. Policy says 1~2 per customer. If the person's a regular and I think they really might switch, I'll give 3~4. But we have this one guy who comes in once a week and demands 12+ of whatever we have at the time. There's an employee or two who gives in to him, thus when someone doesn't give in he gets nasty.

On several occasions I've told him it's against policy and I'm not risking my job just so he can have more free stuff. It really isn't risking my job, but it sounds better like that. The thing is, if I give him a dozen samples each time he comes in, then we'll run out and other customers, WHO MIGHT ACTUALLY BUY THE PRODUCT, won't be able to try any.

Today he got a new employee, pulled his nastiness with her, and used his "I'm not shopping here anymore" line. I witnessed the whole thing, from a distance, and she handled it BEAUTIFULLY. She didn't give in, yet maintained a professional demeanor and smiled pleasantly as she wished him a good day. I assured her that, unfortunately, he WILL be back, and that she handled it well. I also told her that she is to continue following our policies regarding how many samples to give to each customer, despite how rude the guy is. The purpose of the samples program is to convert people to our product, not to supplement one specific customer's budget. It's not our fault that he doesn't make enough money or spends too much on other things.

Lost Keys

Tonight it was a half hour to close and I was making my rounds, ensuring that my employees were on schedule with close-out duties. When I got to the front I saw two employees helping one customer. OK, that sometimes happens, but something wasn't quite normal. "Hey guys, how's it going?" Interpretation: "What are you doing?/Is everything OK?"

Well, the customer lost her keys, supposedly somewhere in our store, and so suddenly it's our responsibility to help her find them. I put one employee back to work and grudgingly let the other one help the lady, realizing it probably meant I'd be working late. Fifteen minutes later, and they had retraced the lady's steps through the store, and still no keys.

"I don't have any other keys to my car or my house. This is terrible! What am I going to do?" asked the bird-brained woman who should have had supervision while in public places. The lady's 6-year-old continued playing his video game, unconcerned. I'll admit I'm not very sympathetic to these kinds of situations: people are STUPID, IRRESPONSIBLE, and besides, I've been driving forever and have yet to misplace my keys (besides in my own house).

At that point, 15 minutes to close, I sent my employee back to work and I took over, knowing that the keys were probably somewhere really stupid. It reminded me of the time one of my crazier employees "lost" her paycheck when she had a lot of bills to pay that day. She checked the store, her car, her apartment, her purse, and where did she find the paycheck? In her back pocket!

So I asked the customer, "Did you check your son's pockets? Yours?" Yes, already done. "Did you go to the bathroom at all?" No. Then she went into the parking lot to look on the ground around the car, leaving her son inside, still playing his game. I went to the register and looked on the floor, around the displays, and then I spotted the shopping bag on the counter. "Is that her bag?" I asked the cashier. Yes. I opened it, suspecting what I would find. Yep, there was the stuff she bought, along with THE KEYS.

How can you buy something, put your keys in the bag, and then forget that they're there in the 30 seconds it takes to walk out the door??? HELLO?! Anyone home??

Luckily the evening was slow so we only got done a couple of minutes late. After a 10-hour workday, I'm ready to go HOME, not search for some idiot's keys.