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

There are many words I'd use to describe shopping, but "enjoyable" isn't one of them. Ever.

The whole idea of a shop is to make a sale.

That's why I don't ask their opinion. If both items look awful, they will tell me that they look great to make the sale.

The shop i work in has cut branches around the country recently. So customers travel to us from these branches to shop with us. Every one who has complained to me has either said "I've had to come from XYZ, YOU closed our local branch"...or , in a huff, "theres nowhere near to get XYZ in now they closed the local branch" or " i really miss the local branch, i loved shopping there"......and i always reply "yes its a shame the branch closed, so many people i know lost their jobs" .....not one customer has ever acknowledged that, its all about the fact they need to travel further to get their stuff now.....

Honestly, this makes me laugh...

Have you ever told a stranger "that makes you look heavier/ its too young for you/ its far too tight/ the colour doesn't suit you EtcEtc

Can you imagine the abuse we'd get??? Saying oh thats lovely is much easier

I agree to an extent but I think people have been ground down by staff cuts. I went to Primark the Sat before Christmas to get some Pjamas and there were 2 staff on an 8 bank till section.
The queue was round the floor! So it must be hard to be perky and friendly when you don't have decent working conditions.

I think since Covid really high street shops have got more dismal. Places like Superdrug and H&M seem to have similar low staffing.

Do you think that paying a fee to release earnings, or not being paid at all for over a month could have anything to do with it?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/11/so-immoral-gig-economy-workers-forced-to-pay-fee-to-receive-their-wages

I miss Wallis too!

I work in JL and management have forced through a transformation in working practice that few staff are happy with. Effectively they’ve forced out the colleagues with experience in favour of people with no family commitments. Trust me, staff are not the ones to be angry at.

I think it's possible to sympathise with staff suffering crap management and practices (although how would customers be aware?) while still expecting a modicum of good manners and competence, and that a duster is passed over the merchandise periodically.

Actually that's true!! I did some shopping Budapest and France last year. The customer service was really really bad.

I'm autistic. People learn very quickly not to fish for compliments ask me what I think of their new clothes. But, they sometimes ask me to go to the shop with them to get an honest opinion.

But yes, you are right that "not getting yelled at" would be a powerful motivator for lying.

Perhaps not when your store has no physical building anymore for you to work in?

All that it needs now is a bit of time. Customers are finding it quicker and easier - and perhaps more pleasant? - to order from home and have it delivered. The older generations who prefer physical shopping will naturally decline and just like that, the shops are gone.

when I worked in retail we were literally trained and encouraged in this sort of interaction.

At the end of the day, people complain about job losses due to automation (self service etc) - but the primary reason people might prefer human service is actual interaction!

So either engage with people cheerfully or at bare minimum politely or be prepared to be replaced by a computer.

I have pretty low expectations of customer service. At a check out, for example, I don't expect the cashier to chat to me, or even be cheerful. I don't even care if they talk to their colleague while serving me, which lots of people on here seem to think is incredibly rude (on the converse side, when I was a shop assistant I didn't care if the customer was on their phone while being served as long as they also responded to me). All that's necessary is that they are polite and speak directly to me - literally just a 'hello' and 'goodbye/thanks' at the end of the interaction. The fact that many can't even manage this is pretty damning.

NMW killed ambition in retail. Employers use it as a ceiling wage.
Before it, people were paid according to experience and if good were given a pay rise.

I think there's an apathy that's crept into work nowadays perhaps because money is not going so far so people are less inclined to give much of themselves.

We are understaffed, underpaid and overworked that's why. We'd love to have time to chat but we literally don't have the resources to be able to. If you are annoyed email head office because they make the decisions and don't realise or care what impact it has on customer service, it's all about the profit.

That doesn't explain why, in a mostly empty shop, the staff are stood around chatting rather than making themselves available to help the customer!

@Badbadbunny obviously I can't speak for the whole of retail but in my store no Otis standing around chatting. I'm sure if you tried approaching them they would help you as well, staff are not mind readers and don't know you need help unless you ask. Also you don't know what they are talking about, we often have team huddles on the shop floor to hand over to the next shift.

That doesn't explain why, in a mostly empty shop, the staff are stood around chatting rather than making themselves available to help the customer!

It does - if you're underpaid and demoralised, why would you give a toss?

Absolutely.

How many times do we see threads on here from people who are job hunting but won't consider retail because they think they're too over-qualified? Or because only idiots work in Tesco?

It happens constantly and then you wonder why people in these jobs don't give a toss?

A sense of self worth surely? Being bad at your job whether you are low wage or not is a very poor reflection on character and never something to be proud of. Many people are unhappy with their work but still do it to the best of their ability.

Leave the job then?

@Dontlletmedownbruce well, being honest, I didn't have much self-worth when I worked in retail and I know the same applied to a lot of my colleagues (across various companies).

I've seen thread after thread on here from people saying how retail is for idiots and "anyone can work in Tesco". Then in the same breath, people bitch about poor service and rude staff.

And no, I wasn't particularly "proud" to do what I did. I hated it. It wasn't the kind of job I ever wanted and it certainly wasn't one I enjoyed - but for various reasons I couldn't do anything else, so I stuck it out because I had bills to pay.

When you have employers breathing down your neck about how you need to up-sell and ask for emails, and customers bitching because you're doing those things - then, yes, after a while you do stop giving a toss.

It might not be "morally correct" but it's the absolute truth for most.

@soupfiend I did, but for many people, they have bills to pay and can't just afford to walk out 🤷‍♀️

Training is often seen as a soft and fluffy add on, rather than essential. So it gets cut when budgets and margins are tight. If you dont explain to staff what you need them to do, and make sure that standards are met, you get shitty customer service. Was watching something about Pret and mystery shoppers last night -that every store gets mystery shopped every week and staff get more money if they do well. Not many places put that kind of money in.

Yep - incentives always work better than punishment - but unfortunately retail management can be a bit backward in that respect.

Instead of rewarding those who do well, it's the ones who struggle who get pulled aside and told off. But generally (in my experience) they don't actually provide support or additional training, just tell you to "sort yourself out".