to think behaviour of retail workers has got worse?

[todayday]

I do mystery shopping audits of retail stores. I have been doing it for quite a few years and have noticed the standards for shop workers has really slipped.

A lot of basic politeness is missing. If I ask where something is, often they say over there which is not very specific rather than taking me to the item. Other staff will not move so I can access an item if they are doing an online shopping order. People restocking often refused to move or sigh when asked politely.

Knowledge of accessibility is poor. Staff often look miserable and look like they don't really care. Others will be chatting away and ignoring customers.

There are great retail staff too who go out of their way to help and always have a kind word to say. In one store, the shop worker would not just assist people struggling with self scan but she would scan their entire shop for them.

That's it, that's the response. I've got a first class degree and I write extremely well selling books. I'm not stupid. I've got a very high IQ. I work in a shop because the hours suit me, not because it's 'all I can get because I didn't work hard at school' and it's remarks like this from customers that make me want to chuck the uniform back in the office and go and stay at home with my laptop.

It’s customers that don’t understand that if they try to pay contactless which fails and requires a PIN, they shout at us,

It is your BANK, that requests a random PIN check, not the RETAILER!

Retailers and other places are not responsible for customers inability to remember their PIN.

Indeed, there's rumours that they are going to close ours because of the shop lifting. Mind you it's right near the Tesco express so it's no loss...so much more expensive

It varies really. Some are great, some can't be bothered to say thank you.

People are generally more miserable now for all the above reasons- staff and customers, creating a vicious circle.

Coupled with stupid bloody targets- it's bloody miserable having to make sure you promote all the on offer items at the checkout, push for loyalty cards or signing up to company emails, and tell the customer to leave feedback with your name. Its a pain for everyone and actually puts me off going into shops when I can order online.

Lush is an example- generally customer service is good, but my God, they really have to push sales onto you. Walk in planning to get a bath bomb or something with the DC, get pounced on, told that this one is good for this, that one good for something. All I want to do is have a look and smell myself without someone telling me what to look at. I imagine by the end of the day they are exhausted and fed up themselves.

Minimum wage = Minimum effort

Yes, but more importantly customer behaviour has been worse for longer, Covid was a real accelerator for horrendous behaviour, but it started before that.
i have a young family member working for a well known fast food restaurant, most weeks they had teenagers or young adults throw drinks / hot food / hot drinks over / at their face just for fun. Never any repercussions as they’d run off. They really tried as needed the money, but had enough and left. I hear it carries on.

Ive been in shops where people of all ages above 40 shouting at the staff as they themselves have forgotten something and they want it fixed. People have got into the idea that being rude pays off.

sometimes I can’t blame retail staff for not wanting to make the effort and just hoping the customers leave without kicking off.

In my opinion you’ve totally got your question wrong…
How about.. Why are retail and service staff so very stressed and under trained?
Its a very simple answer based on the austerity that we have lived under now for almost 15 years.
Experienced people are continually made redundant and low paid inexperienced staff are hired to replace them. In my lived experience, they aren’t even replaced at the same rate. So 50% of the staff on lower wages with no experience.

A few Co-ops about 5-7 miles from me have closed and converted to Morrisons Daily. They are a franchise done by a company called Samy. Removed the staff and replaced with workers who are clueless about working in retail and speak very little English. Co-ops used to be 7am-10pm and now MD do 24/7.

I heard from people that you cannot scan the Morrisons loyalty card there.

Also with covid, at the beginning of the lockdown, supermarket and essential retail workers got thanked for being there and doing great.

That lasted just after the last lockdown.

Now more and more customers tut and sigh if they have to queue for 30 seconds. Yet almost 5 years ago, they were ok queuing for 30 mins before entering the shops. I think my store had just about 3 or 4 customers that proper kicked off and swore at the security in why they had to queue.

There's definitely a relationship between crap customer service and all those little "no tolerance" signs! Funny that!

I agree. I said this to my DH recently. Iceland is one that springs to mind.
They are blanket rude to everyone, then wonder why a few customers bite back.

A few weeks back, I visited a different Lidl to the one I usually go to - had an interview before that and on the self scan, there was a lovely young lady with deformed hand and only had a thumb and forefinger.

Went back there this morning - had a click n collect parcel to collect from a shop nearby. Asked the lad about her. She had to leave as customers took piss out of her hand and she had a mental breakdown.

He said he misses her as she put in 110% into her work and got praised by management and customers. She even puts out delivery which from my experience, some cases are difficult to open to get to the SRP (self ready packaging) - think jars on their cardboard trays, which are shrinkwrapped.

Customers are pure evil sometimes.

Thats a terrible story @Auburngal , people can be utter c*s

Yeah, the old 'you made me do it!' to justify abusing someone.
They're not talking about customers 'biting back' they're talking about being sworn and spat at, having things thrown at them and physically and sexually assaulted. Being told they'll wait outside for you and to watch your back.
Not really a proportionate response to the person in the aisle stacking shelves not walking you personally towards the tinned beans or your card being declined at the till , or there being a queue is it?
But as ever perfectly acceptable to treat service staff that way and seek ways to justify it and make it all someone else's fault.

How did you get this job?

About 7-10 days before the first lockdown, I took my car to garage to have its MOT, so walked to work. This was during the selfish shelf stripping time. About 5 minutes before the end of my shift, this guy was being very abusive to every member of staff who said he’s coming to get us later. He was hovering by the entrance.

Myself and a couple of others finished together. Manager opened up the back door where deliveries are unloaded. It’s the far end of the entrance.

Well they probably don’t care, they are on minimum wage in a lot of cases, and probably frequently get spoken to like shit.

When a bank's systems go down like today with Nationwide etc, the amount of abuse that shop, hospitality staff etc get is crazy. It has got nothing to do with the staff in the shop. cafe, leisure centre etc. Your payments would fail regardless of whichever establishment you are in.

Its the same when a card is declined. We know nothing about it, except the card machine is showing the word declined in it and we need to void the actual till sale.
But customers except you to have an inside line to the bank and to their personal account and for you to know exactly why their card was declined. And when you say you don't, you get the eye rolls, huffing and puffing and "clearly you can't do your job properly then"..

Had a customer who spent about £30 and her card declined. She thrusted her phone with banking app open right into my eyes. Her actual balance was £2 less than transaction. She looked at the top figure, which includes pending transactions - purchases done within 36 hours. I just said its the actual balance you need to look at.

Retail workers are not responsible for customers to read their bank balances properly or when their bank's systems go down.

ALL shops have a 'no tolerance' sign, it's nothing to do with customer/worker behaviour, it's something we're sent from higher up and it's a blanket coverage thing. The signs just might not be where you have noticed them. Like the Over 25 signs. If you are clearly over 25 and unlikely to be challenged, you probably won't have seen these all over the alcohol aisle, but they are there.

Our please treat us with respect signs are so small and in obscure places you'd be doing well to even find one. Its the sales staff who get it in the neck, always. When a customer is ranting at us, 9 times out of 10 if a manager is called they will give the customer what they want. And customers know that these days.

I add my voice to the chorus saying it’s customer behaviour causing the change. I have frequently been absolutely disgusted by how the general public seem to think they can behave towards staff in retail and catering.

Dealing with such crap several times a shift must grind you down.

I find it so annoying when checkout operators scan much faster than you can pack. It gets stressful even though I’m not a slow packer, and it doesn’t actually save time, you just spend more time packing at the end. I do notice it’s mainly female checkout staff who do this, male ones are more likely to tailor their scan speed to your packing speed.