AIBU to want to scream over

[Hedgeblog]

today's style of customer service.

They are many things that annoy me when I am out shopping but today this make me irrationally mad.

Whilst paying for a scarf a The White Stuff the sales assistant with no hello just asked
"Are you part of the white stuff family?"

WTF!!!

How would you reply to this sort of ridiculous question? It turns out they basically get your details and log everything you buy, presumably to profile you so they can hound you to buy more stuff. There was no mention of points or loyalty offers.

How did you resist saying "Yes. They're my parents."

You should have said 'I'm an orphan' then burst into tears.

I feel sorry for the poor buggers who are TOLD they HAVE to say this to customers..

For all they know, every customer is a potential secret shopper, unless it is a relative in which case they can say "fucks sake I wish it was time to go home"

Why do shops also have greeters on the shop door, I find myself trying to sneak in so they don't greet me.

I'm very unreasonable - I want shop assistants to ignore me (a quick smile of welcome is ok) right up until the moment I have a question and then I want them to be immediately available....IABU I know.

Me too Sarah

Sarah

I don't think it is unreasonable to expected sales assistants should leave us alone until we want help then be available immediately.

In that shop yesterday I was greeted at the door (cringe).

I then couldn't find what I wanted, so asked the same girl who said "it's around the other side".
I was then left to find them for myself which took quite a while because they were in a basket at floor height!

I then went to the checkout, there was no one there for a while, the reason there was no one there was because the girl was by the front door ready to greet someone.

She eventually saw me came over and asked "are you part of the The White Stuff family".

Crap crap crap!

If I may lower the tone, briefly....

I recently shopped at Argos.

The lovely girl on the counter asked me to answer a series of customer satisfaction survey questions before I left. The last one was "do you think our staff cared about your shopping experience today?"

Do I have to answer that honestly?

Really? Did I get good service? Yes.

Was the lovely girl smiley, helpful and polite? Yes.

Did she ensure she did her job properly? Yes.

Did she actually care about my shopping experience? I very much doubt it!

I love the Argos questionnaire, and always answer that I'm very satisfied.

But then, my mate is manager at my local store, so good results are vital for her so I do all I can to help

I remember working for a certain large now tax payer owned bank and having to ask every customer to return a survey if they got it and to tick very satisfied - our bonus depended on it, and mystery shops were a nightmare. Basically recommend every product as ideal for the customer over the counter or you failed and could end up starting a disciplinary process...

That's interesting Flying

Why don't these companies just pay their front line staff more and get rid of all the head office people paid to have meetings to come up with this crap. If the staff were being paid really well these tick box surveys wouldn't be needed.