Why is customer service so horrendous in shops nowadays?

[whyohwhymetoday]

No eye contact. Often chatting away to colleagues and looking disinterested at you whilst continuing their conversation as you hand over £££

Nobody to help on shop floor

Poor knowledge about returns and items sold in store

No interest in helping me choose. That type of thing

I recently went into a high street shop and held up two tops. I said to a nearby woman with a label on for that shop ''Oh I just can't choose! What do you think looks best, this or this? :D''

She sort of looked like I'd ask her to inspect my undercarriage and said 'it's up to you, they're both nice' and carried on with what she was doing

I know these (mostly women) aren't paid loads but come on, surely it feels better to do a good job?

Hats off to M&S, such lovely and understanding staff in there well, not the cafe. They all seem to be rude

Lady servicing me at No7 in Boots yesterday looked like she genuinely couldn't be less interested when I asked her what shade would work for me

My 2 local B&M stores have really nice staff, always helpful and make you feel like you're not disturbing them or being an inconvenience by wanting someone to scan your shop so you can pay

My local Waitrose has hideously grumpy women who appear to be taking up a job post retirement and feeling very bitter about it!

McDonald's always pleasant too!

Vue Cinema, awful

Amazon delivery men, amazing. Once again, proving why Amazon just works for a lot of stuff

Honestly, be warned High street, you'll all be gone within 10 years and bargain stores like B&M/Poundland will be there, alongside maybe Boots because it has a Pharmacy

I'm interested in the recruitment and training for the Schuh chain of stores. Almost always smiley, polite students with brilliant communication skills. It has to be intentional as I've noticed it over the last 15 years or so in multiple locations. My local M&S and Asda are pretty good too.

I don't think OP's wrong about the decline in retail but I do agree if you want actual help with clothes you need to go somewhere posher than Peacocks.

You definitely get that kind of service in small clothing boutiques in e.g. Sevenoaks or Alderley Edge (to pick a couple of posh places at random).

Waitrose are good too. My friend's son tells me they're pleasant to work for too.

Asking a member of staff their opinion on what you should buy is odd IMO

Maybe it was the the end of day and the staff were just getting tired and ready to go home?. I work in food retail and I think as a store our customer service is fairly good. Management will always back us up with any customer issues too. If it's been a long busy day, we might feel tired towards the end of the shift and not quite as cheery lol but are always helpful as much as we can be. When your with the public all the time, it can take its toll on you.

I've just realised that you've already had this discussion with prior posters. My apologies.

"Cancel the cheque" springs to mind.

Why?

I stood waiting to be served listening in to the assistants conversation with another customer for a while before replacing the goods and walking out.
I can understand why the assistants are unhappy and moral is low , but no excuses when someone wants to actually pay for something!
I can order goods online and have it delivered without any of this or having to pay to park in busy car parks where to the use the app costs more.
I know it doesn't help the high street , but it's certainly easier sometimes especially when the service you get is shabby in some places

Buying online doesn't mean you have to get it from China...

Lots of people have realised that they owe their employers nothing. They no longer have to be grateful to have a job - those shops wouldn't earn a penny without workers on the shop floor. They're overworked because they're chronically understaffed and far too often, they get abuse for things they can't change because they have no influence over policy. Staff who are helpful and smile and put a lot of effort into their jobs do so because they're well treated and appreciated by their managers. If a whole workforce are grumpy and unhelpful maybe we need to spend our money where the staff are better treated.

"Stranger! You don't know me from Adam, have no idea what else is in my wardrobe, nor any idea what I like! Now select my clothing purchases for me."

If you have to ask, it doesn't suit you. You will know when a garment does suit you.

It does depend on what you're buying - if it's technical, for instance, like wanting to know which of two TVs would be best for your needs, I think it's fine to do this (and staff in tech shops often get commission) but not if it's whether to buy the blue top or the red one, because that's just a personal preference.

Yes absolutely

Bad manners is one thing and I agree that personal conversations whilst serving someone is the height of rudeness, but expecting shop assistants to be style advisors is another. They probably don't want to deal with people coming back and complaining that they were advised badly and go the wrong thing two days later.

I posted similar a while back, OP and got absolutely flamed about the conditions of shop workers and how dreadful their days are.

I used to be a nurse and regardless of whether I'd been shouted at, hit, spat on or covered in bodily fluids by the last patient; I'd get a massive bollocking, complaint or worse, if I spoke to the next patient like shit. And the pay wasn't that different!

But you're right, it's like you're inconveniencing them for going into their shop. They don't stop their conversations while they're serving you, in local shops they tend to continually chat socially on the phone while serving you. They don't make eye contact or even say bye or thank you. And no chance will anyone find anything for you.

I overheard a manager in our local express store expressing absolute joy that he was moving to one of the bigger out of town stores and wouldn’t have to deal with the constant shoplifting, physical & verbal abuse and all the paperwork that entails with that, the constant staff turnover because they aren’t really protected, the security guard is just a deterrent and can only ban them from coming in again once an incident has happened.

Obviously this isn’t the fault of ALL customers but imagine how demoralising it is to deal with those minority day in day out.

Honestly I don't really need or want interaction with retail staff beyond service at the till, I certainly wouldn't ask what top suits me better. However low pay is really not an excuse to be rude or do a bad job. Presumably you've applied, interviewed for and accepted the job knowing the salary throughout that process. Loads of job aren't paid enough for what they do, how far does I'm not well paid so I'll do a crap job go?

Waitrose is the exception. I find the staff really good, engaged and genuinely seem to enjoy what they're doing.

My local petrol station, the till guy was on a video call to someone and didn't speak to me or even look up to acknowledge me saying "pump number three, please". He only looked up at me to say "cash or card?" and then went straight back to his video call. I didn't think anyone would top my poor customer service experience, but you just did.

I don't expect a smile nor prolonged eye contact, I'm autistic so I get that smiling and eye contact aren't much fun. But don't leave me wondering if you even heard me.

Everything is geared up for self service. Engineers have replaced assistants to automate the sales process and pass over the responsiblity to the customer to do much of the work so why would they have any care or autonomy in their role anymore? Even actual 'Customer Service' roles are replaced with chat bots.

I recently had a bad experience in my local L'Occitane. I walked in , picked up my item and went to the checkout. There were two members of staff in the shop that was no bigger than my living room , one of the workers definitely saw me standing by the checkout and turned back around to continue making a display. They couldn't have missed me because my autistic son was losing patience very quickly while we stood there! I had to ask to pay for my item. I emailed customer services and received an apology and a free gift (that I won't use as I don't like the scent of the item) , I will probably stick to buying online in the future.

I worked in retail as a teenager and that behaviour would never have been acceptable. Even as an awkward 16yo I understood that I needed to be chatty and helpful with customers and have a good knowledge of the products available. The wages were crap then too , but you'd be sacked if you didn't do your job properly.

Yanbu. I used to work in customer service and it makes the job so much more enjoyable just to be pleasant and helpful with customers. I can't stand it when you have to interrupt staff chatting to each other or when they are just downright rude and aggressive. One example is a local supermarket cafe where some staff just treat every basic request like it's a huge annoyance for them. If you don't want to be helpful go and work in a non customer facing role! I can spot a mile off if someone has the right attitude for customer service or not.

Timpsons are great.

Honestly it sounds like you want a personal assistant, not retail staff. And there's a shit tonne of customers like this, who don't understand that the retail industry is seriously struggling, many places at risk of going under, and they simply cannot afford for staff to stand around being at the beck and call of one customer. Because you are not the only customer who expects it.

I don't understand someone asking a retail worker in a low paid job, which top to buy. Just choose your own clothing, buy the one you prefer, presumably you're a fully grown adult? I've genuinely never perused the George section of Asda, or River Island and ever thought to ask a retail worker which item of clothing they prefer, for me to buy? This just isn't a thing.

If you choose to purchase from Louis Vuitton or similar, you'd get the personal shopper experience. That sounds more like what you're after.

I do agree about general miserable demeanour and lack of customer service on the whole. I've worked retail and have took great pride in offering fantastic customer service, so I'm often disappointed with general really slow working (one of my pet hates is super slow folk on the tills, there's no need and I struggle to understand why so many staff on tills seem to go so slow they're at risk of going backwards) , not even a smile etc when in a shop & not being particularly helpful when you (and this is key here) genuinely need assistance. .

What I will say is that retail staff are under surprisingly exceedingly high pressure, are severely undervalued and to be honest, really don't have the time to be offering you personal opinions on your own clothing choice. In fact, certainly in my experience of retail, whilst we were pushed to be friendly and helpful, we'd also get chastised in the office right afterward if we did this whilst spending too long with one customer because 'there's other customers, close and move on to the next' or there's work to be done whilst we're stood around 'chatting to customers'. Then there's the ones who end up telling you their personal lives, and stories. I may have actually wanted to hear it, because I like people and like to interact with them, but people who do this are ensuring I was getting a talking to in the back office for 'wasting time'. It's kind of fair really, I wasn't being paid (even on the miserly wage I was) to chat with folk.

I can't get worked up about workers chatting on the shop floor. With the hideously small unpaid breaks they get, and how when management are around they are feared to say more than a couple sentences to each other (even if kind of work related), I don't blame them for taking an opportunity to build some team relations.

Make up counter staff however are expected to assist customers in make up choices, so I don't get that one.

It has in a way gone downhill, because the money just isn't there anymore. But, you do also need to adopt some realistic expectations of where you're shopping. And from the sounds of it, you're not shopping in high end stores where you can reasonably expect the staff to bend over for you.

Not odd.... 'i was looking for one like this but with a full zip, do you have one?' Or 'I need a waterproof pair, which of these are waterproof?' both conversations I've had in outdoor shops lately (Mountain Warehouse and Go Outdoors, both very helpful).