To think that if you’re even slightly rude to retail staff you should be banned from the store.

[ThisAquaCrow]

Based on a conversation I’ve just had with a family member who has left work today again in tears because approximately 90% of the people she deals with range from low level rude right through to ‘you fucking bitch’ rude.

What is WRONG with people and if you are rude to retail staff on a regular basis, WHY?

In a small town they are 😂

I was in our paper shop the other day. The bell went, and without looking up the shopkeeper went "You're barred!!"

In the distance I heard "Fucking hell Barbara". It was magnificent.

I have never ever seen this though. In fact I just wish the staff aren't so bloody chatty and keep the queue moving instead.

I worked in retail for about 18 years. I left before covid. I think customers have become worse since covid, from what I've witnessed and been told by ex colleagues.

I'd argue that the low key rudeness is what grinds staff down. The not acknowledging you when you say hello. When customers would come up to you and just say one word when asking where something was, like 'dresses'. No 'Hi, could you tell me where X is please?'
The being told to be quick when you were serving them, when you were already going as fast as you could.
The refolding the clothes at the cash desk after you had just folded them carefully. The getting annoyed at you if you didn't know where they could buy X from, as if you should know the inventory of everything in every other store in existence!
The being rude to you when you couldn't give them a refund as their reciept is out of date.
Huffing when there's an IT issue and you're trying to sort it.
The walking out of the queue to go to the tills to come loudly complain that the queue is so long, even though all tills are on and being used. As if it's a big surprise the shops are manic the weekend before Christmas And we can just magic up extra tills.
Passive aggressive comments. Huffing and sighing loudly if there's any kind of delay due to new staff training.
The never retuning your smile.
When the carrier bags charge came in - omg how many comments of frustration i had to listen to for over a year about charging them 5p for a bag!!

It all adds up. And it grinds you down if many of the people you serve are like this day in day out.

The openly aggressive and abusive customers are bad, but I'd say they are rarer and it's so obviously unacceptable behaviour, that it's easier to process and move on in most cases.

When I visit shops and staff are hostile while I'm shopping, I will put in a complaint at the time to their manager or fill in a feedback form online. And my kids have previously said to me as we leave, 'Mum, you would never have let your staff act like that to customers when you were a manager' which is very true 😁

I always go out if my way to be nice to retail staff, as I have had my fair share of retail jobs in the past, and know how vile some people can be.

Example: Poundland, employee stocking up in the aisle - I said good morning and asked how they'd been with Christmas coming up - had a quick (I know they're busy so don't chat long- think under 2min) chat about some of the lovely wrapping paper and bottle boxes that were on sale, and told them I hoped they had a good day.

Whatever the issue is if you're shopping, unless the staff member is rude to you, it's not their fault - if something is out of stock, they can't magically make more stock appear. And they don't control the prices, so don't be vile to them over that either!

Only exception on pricing would be if they've got the shelf edge label wrong, and even then there's a way to speak to people - just because they work in a shop (nothing wrong with that but some people seem to think it's not a 'proper' job), it doesn't make them second class citizens.

There's a difference between being "slightly rude" and abusive. People who are abusive should be barred, of course.

People deserve to be treated with courtesy and respect in the workplace. I am on board with a zero tolerance approach to rudeness.

But if we're going to go down that route, then maybe we also need to adopt a zero tolerance approach to poor customer service? One failure to provide decent customer service means that the retail worker loses their job?

There is no excuse for customers being rude to staff, but the fact that customer service in this country is often so poor does tend to increase the risk that customers will respond angrily to the poor service that they receive.

The reality is that shops probably won't want to ban customers at the slightest hint of rudeness because they need the custom. Likewise, they won't want to get rid of their underperforming staff because they need people to run their shops. What they really need to do is invest in much better training so that the staff learn how to treat customers properly in the first place and have the skills to deal with any difficult situations more effectively.

I always try to be polite to staff and find that >9/10 it is reciprocated...

As for checkout staff not saying anything to customers..... While a 'thank-you' is appreciated, I prefer silence over the American custom of asking "how is your day going", "are you looking forward to the holidays", etc.

Barbara is a legend. Be more like Barbara 😁

"Retailers are not responsible your poor planning"

I remember about 6 years ago, on Dec 17th, I had a customer asking me if we had any advent calendars left. We had none left and she was so angry. Why on earth was she asking when there's just a week left of doors to open? We usually sold out before 1st Dec. Sometimes we had the posher ones left - Lindor balls ones left and bought one for £2 about 5th Dec.

I remember it was Dec 17th as its a colleague's birthday and mentioned to her about the AC. "FFS never had a customer asking for an advent calendar on my birthday before."

What is the staff member was rude first? I think it depends on the situation.

I'd say many of the issues that customers face are down to the policies of the company and the inflexible attitude that many companies have to deviation from that by staff, because the customer is unhappy.
I can think a policy is unfair and stupid, I can feed the customers POV back, I can tell them what I think (if I want to be accused of not being a team player and going against my employers policy) but ultimately, I can't change it, I can deviate from it of course, but that doesn't mean it's going to be honoured by the company, and will likely lead to loss of a job anyway if I keep defying my employer.
Employers will need to sack staff for doing as they're told, because a customer has fallen foul of their own policy they insist their staff stick to 🤷🏼‍♀️.

What they really need to do is stop making policies that piss off customers, and standing back and allowing their staff to bear the brunt of that frustration. They need to allow some autonomy in their staff and not penalise staff for using their common sense and stop insisting they follow rules blindly. And they need to stop apologising to people who are genuinely rude or abusive towards staff and bar them.

Both customers and staff are being screwed over by these companies, yet the blame and the concequences seem to dodge the people causing the problems to start with and land elsewhere. Places like that don't care about the customer past parting you with as much money as possible, and they care even less about the staff. Yet as a society we applaud those benefitting from that as being examples of what hard work, sacrifice and dedication can achieve.

That's where it's gone wrong. Like I said in a pp, we have the service we've cultivated as a society.

I'm not sure.
I have an acquaintance who would start a fight with a dead animal and regales me with tales about the various rude customers (including their ethnicity, if they're not white and British 😕) , tussles with younger colleagues etc - and this is while I'm at the self service, waiting patiently for her to approve my alcohol purchase .

I'm a small business owner and I do this - nobody gets away with being rude to me or my staff. Before I opened my own business I worked for years in retail and service industries and these people can really ruin your day, there's absolutely no need for it. People often seem surprised I don't want their business, but I really don't if you're going to be a dick. My business, my choice. My staff love this policy too because they know I'll stick up for them

We used to have a corner shop where the owner would ban people all the time. Their transgressions included making a return or winning something on the lottery. She'd unban people periodically but people quickly got sick of it.

It was so funny when a local Tesco Express opened up and now she's out of business.

@Maverickess agree. Quite a few shops feel like they've checked out when it comes to customers. I feel like they see customers as an inconvenience. I miss the 90s when places were competing with things like Tesco's one in front policy (even if it often didn't happen!)

@HunterHearstHelmsley I don't know. It doesn't sound that funny for someone to lose their business. :/

That just encourages the customer

Why shouldn't she be banned?

There was a poster a few weeks ago where they went to a shop about 6pm to cash in scratch cards she had in her birthday cards and there were no staff trained on the terminal. Think of how much money they aren't getting from this.

We have had that once or twice,, always due to sickness. At certain times there are only going to be one or two colleagues trained on certain areas. If one is off and another goes sick what can you do . Yes you can train people up as emergency cover but occasionally there will be times when cover just isn't there. Especially with something like lottery tickets, which whilst isn't difficult isn't just a case of looking at them an saying oh yeh you won a fiver have it out the till. If there is a step by step process and you only cover that once every 6 months or so then you may not remember all the necessary steps because you quite simply do not do it enough for it to sink in

The bottom line though is that having a go at the floor staff is utterly pointless in affecting change, there's been a definite increase in how many people do it, it does nothing but relieve their immediate frustrations and offload them onto someone else, because clearly it's not changing anything further up the chain where changes can be made.
Most people do actually know that IMO, but it's the easy option to vent frustration at the person in front of you, even if you know they're as powerless to change it as you are.
I agree with the points that a lot of businesses are chasing ever increasing profit at the expense of their staff and customers, but they're the ones calling the shots unfortunately, customers do have the option to vote with their feet, but that's often a last measure because it's inconvenient, and many places are the same.

It's a natural consequence when you keep banning your customers.

Massively unreasonable. There’s an enormous gulf between being ‘slightly rude’ to an obnoxious employee and being angry and aggressive. Customers are people too. You’re just cancelling people you want power over.

I do find that customer service is practically nonexistent these days (and I worked in retail and hospitality for years so understand the job). Recent example: I was at a Tesco checkout, and the staff member on the till was working back-to-back with another cashier. She did not say hello when it was my turn, did not acknowledge me in any way, continued a full conversation with her colleague as she was scanning my items. And then proceeded to start a conversation with the man behind me in the queue as she clearly knew him. When she had scanned all my items she didn’t even tell me the amount, so I just tapped my card and walked off. I’ll bet she would have regarded me as rude.

I agree people are often rude to employees, I have called people out on it before.

But it’s also true that there is diabolically bad customer service happening in the UK. It doesn’t justify rudeness but it does make me wary of even approaching store staff.